|
?:abstract
|
-
BACKGROUND: As the number of COVID-19 cases in the US continues to rise and hospitals are experiencing personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, healthcare workers have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infection. Since COVID-19 testing is now available, some have raised the question of whether we should be routinely testing asymptomatic healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE: To provide a quantitative analysis of the predicted impact that regular COVID-19 testing of healthcare workers may have on COVID-19 infection prevention in emergency department patients and staff. METHODS: Using publicly available data on COVID-19 infections and emergency department visits, as well as internal hospital staffing information, we generated a mathematical model to predict the impact of periodic COVID-19 testing in asymptomatic members of the emergency department staff in regions affected by COVID-19 infection. We calculated various transmission constants based on the Diamond Princess cruise ship data, used a logistic model to calculate new infections, and we created a Markov model according to average COVID-19 incubation time. RESULTS: Our model predicts that after 180 days, with a transmission constant of 1.219e-4 new infections per person2, weekly COVID-19 testing of healthcare workers (HCW) would reduce new HCW and patient infections by 3~5.9% and bi-weekly testing would reduce both by 1~2.1%. At a transmission constant of 3.660e-4 new infections per person2, weekly testing would reduce infections by 11~23% and bi-weekly testing would reduce infections by 5.5~13%. For a lower transmission constant of 4.067e-5 new infections per person2, weekly and biweekly HCW testing would result in a 1% and 0.5~0.8% reduction in infections respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Periodic COVID-19 testing for emergency department staff in regions that are heavily-affected by COVID-19 and/or facing resource constraints may reduce COVID-19 transmission significantly among healthcare workers and previously-uninfected patients.
|
![[This page as RDF]](https://research.tib.eu/covid-19/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}