key: cord-1024528-3kdijatx
authors: Vanker, Ahmed; McGeer, Allison; O’Byrne, Gray; Snyder, Ellen C R; Salisbury, David A; Guthrie, Jennifer L; Patel, Samir N; Gubbay, Jonathan B; Morgan, Matthew
title: Adverse Outcomes Associated with SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.351 Infection in Vaccinated Residents of a Long Term Care Home, Ontario, Canada
date: 2021-06-06
journal: Clin Infect Dis
DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciab523
sha: 627de500087dc31e7b51a41b3680b6da948c9e97
doc_id: 1024528
cord_uid: 3kdijatx

nan

M a n u s c r i p t 2 

We read with interest the description of an outbreak due to SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.351 (501Y.V2) in a nursing home in France (1) . Below we describe an outbreak due to the same variant in a long term care home (LTCH) in Canada. In this home, 138 of 139 residents were fully vaccinated with BNT162b2, with doses received between January 9 th and March 18 th , 2021. Of 243 staff, 204 (84%) had received at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine (122 fully vaccinated, and 82 with second dose delayed as part of Canada's vaccination strategy).

Because of on-going community SARS-CoV-2 transmission, measures to prevent outbreaks for all Ontario LTCHs include daily symptom screening for staff and residents, visitor restriction to single caregivers, droplet-contact precautions for residents with symptoms compatible with COVID-19, and bi-weekly screening of staff with using either PCR or rapid antigen testing (Panbio®). All positive antigen tests were confirmed by PCR. All specimens yielding SARS-CoV-2 by PCR were screened for mutations at S-gene positions A23063T the surrounding community, although very high vaccination rates such as those in this home may mitigate outbreak size and severity. In addition to on-going surveillance screening and testing, and work to optimize infection prevention practice, other interventions such as vaccines specifically against variants, and requirements for staff to be vaccinated, may need to be considered if LTCH residents are to be optimally protected.

BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination did not prevent an outbreak of SARS COV-2 variant 501Y.V2 in an elderly nursing home but reduced transmission and disease severity

Genome Sequence Informatics Repository. ncov2019-artic-nf. GitHub Repository 2020

A dynamic nomenclature proposal for SARS-CoV-2 lineages to assist genomic epidemiology

GitHub Repository 2020

A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 5