key: cord-1026070-0qlo0mun authors: Park, Sung‐Soo; Oh, Hye-Young; Hong, Duck‐Jin title: Mass screening of healthcare personnel for SARS-CoV-2 in the northern emirates date: 2020-10-17 journal: J Hosp Infect DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.10.008 sha: 1b25fa8e8d3581f7b39ae7e959715fd3898e8681 doc_id: 1026070 cord_uid: 0qlo0mun nan While healthcare personnel (HCP) potentially has an increased risk of infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the era of the pandemic [1] , the approach to testing HCP for the virus has not been uniform [2] . Given the significant percentage of asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection [3] , universal testing of HCP could allow infected workers to be identified and isolated early, reduce in-hospital transmission, mitigate potential workforce depletion, and enhance healthcare workers' safety [4] . This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the universal staff screening for COVID-19 and identify any risk factor for viral infection. The hospital invited HCP to screen for SARS-CoV-2 three times between 3rd April and 14th May 2020, regardless of symptoms. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The staff were encouraged to notify the occupational health nurse for SARS-CoV-2 test any time if they had any suspicious symptoms of COVID-19 or close contact with COVID-19 patients. Once a member of staff was confirmed as a COVID-19 case, a structured survey and contact tracing were followed. All clinical staff in the hospital were recommended to wear a surgical mask from 12th March 2020, onwards. External visitors were prohibited from entering the hospital starting on 24th March 2020. All patients were admitted to negative pressure rooms first after routine screening RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 from 13th April 2020. COVID-19 patients were transferred to the There were sharp rises in the rate of positive coronavirus tests up to 4.0% and 6.3% at the second and third screening, respectively (Table I) As the travel ban and lockdown had been imposed since late March 2020 in the UAE [5] , a high incidence of COVID-19 in support staff might be related to shared accommodation and crowded commuter vehicles, which is supported by the survey. Most migrant workers in Gulf countries are confined to small rooms which are shared with up to a dozen workers [6] . It is comparable to the findings of the previous studies that household contact or extra-occupational exposure might J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f have a role in transmission dynamics among HCP [7, 8] . The limited accessibility of the healthcare system for these staff might also contribute to their higher infection rate. They must visit a different medical clinic when they are ill, unlike other employees. Screening found few COVID-19 patients in the non-support staff, which implies that strict infection preventive measures could contain in-hospital transmission effectively if transmission outside hospital settings is under control. The limitation of the study is that it is hard to generalise the results due to the Middle East setting and COVID-19 free status of the institution. Also, since the screening was done during the coronavirus lockdown, the epidemiology could change when restrictions are lifted. The proportion of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases supports the utility of the universal screening of HCP. However, as mass screening for a long time seems unsustainable, targeted screening for high-risk groups might be an alternative in the second wave of COVID-19. J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Risk of COVID-19 among front-line healthcare workers and the general community: a prospective cohort study Effective control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission between healthcare workers during a period of diminished community prevalence of COVID-19 Covid-19: four fifths of cases are asymptomatic, China figures indicate COVID-19: the case for healthcare worker screening to prevent hospital transmission United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior Labor camps in the Gulf states. Viewpoints: Migration and the Gulf Characteristics and transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in healthcare workers at a London teaching hospital Transmission to Healthcare Personnel: the Global ACT-HCP Case-Control Study Soohyun Ha and Zahra Ahmed Mohammed Saeed, for their hard work to increase SARS-CoV-2 test capacity. The authors thank Katrine K. Gatchalian and Hyojung Kim, for assistance in extracting data from COVID-19 test registry and Sowmya A. Fernandes J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f None declared. None.J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f