August 31, 2020

Low Risk of COVID-19 among Patients Exposed to Infected Healthcare Workers

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

Keywords (Tags): transmission

• Baker et al. found a low risk to patients of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection from an infected health care worker. They tested 226 of 238 patients exposed to SARS-CoV-2 by 60 infected health care workers at a large hospital in Boston between March 1 and June 10, 2020 and found that only 2 patients tested positive 14 days after exposure. Of these, one had an intimate household contact who also tested positive on the same day that they were exposed to the infected healthcare worker. The other was exposed to a physician for 30 minutes on the day the physician’s symptoms began while neither the patient nor physician were masked.

Baker et al. (Aug 28, 2020). Low Risk of COVID-19 among Patients Exposed to Infected Healthcare Workers. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1269