SARS-CoV-2 transmission among health care workers, an outbreak investigation using whole-genome sequencing.

Abstract

BackgroundWe report an outbreak investigation to map intra-hospital transmission among health care workers (HCW) using epidemiological and whole-genome sequencing data.MethodsFourteen clinical wards (COVID-19 and non-COVID-19) with high infection rates of SARS-CoV-2 among HCW were selected and demographical, epidemiological and sequencing data were collected of all HCW testing positive by RT-PCR. Clustered cases were identified based on first disease onsets and differences in single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP's) and were analysed for additional characteristics.ResultsData was collected for 123 HCW. Out of 123 HCW, 65 (53%) worked at eight non-COVID-19 wards, 56 (46%) at four COVID-19 wards, one (ConclusionOur findings strongly indicate transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among HCW. Whole-genome sequencing is useful for identification of clusters and can give direction to targeted infection prevention measures.