A Longitudinal, Clinical, and Spatial Epidemiologic Analysis of a Large COVID-19 Long-Term Care Home Outbreak.

J Am Med Dir Assoc

Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Infection Prevention and Control, Sinai Health, Toronto, Canada; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

Published: October 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • COVID-19 had a severe impact on long-term care homes in Canada, accounting for over 50% of mortality in 2020, highlighting the need to understand transmission dynamics in these settings.
  • The study used a retrospective chart review and spatial mapping to analyze a COVID-19 outbreak in a long-term care home in Ontario, utilizing various records for a comprehensive overview.
  • Findings revealed that most residents showed symptoms, a high infection rate was due to close interactions exacerbated by staffing issues, and infections often clustered in shared rooms, suggesting the need for improved screening and room management strategies.

Article Abstract

Objectives: COVID-19 has had devastating effects on long-term care homes across much of the world, and especially within Canada, with more than 50% of the mortality from COVID-19 in 2020 in these homes. Understanding the way in which the virus spreads within these homes is critical to preventing further outbreaks.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Settings And Participants: Long-term care home residents and staff in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study of a large long-term care home COVID-19 outbreak in Ontario, Canada, using electronic medical records, public health records, staff assignments, and resident room locations to spatially map the outbreak through the facility.

Results: By analyzing the outbreak longitudinally, we were able to draw 3 important conclusions: (1) 84.5% had typical COVID-19 symptoms and only 15.5% of residents had asymptomatic infection; (2) there was a high attack rate of 85.8%, which appeared to be explained by a high degree of interconnectedness within the home exacerbated by staffing shortages; and (3) clustering of infections within multibedded rooms was common.

Conclusion And Implications: Low rates of asymptomatic infection suggest that symptom-based screening in residents remains very important for detecting outbreaks, a high degree of interconnectedness explains the high attack rate, and there is a need for improved guidance for homes with multibedded rooms on optimizing resident room movement to mitigate spread of COVID-19 in long-term care homes.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8321736PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2021.07.021DOI Listing

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