7/28—Hospital-Acquired COVID-19 Infection – The Magnitude of the Problem

In 239 inpatients who tested positive for COVID-19 infection, the prevalence of hospital-acquired COVID 19 infection was 16.2%. Patients who were infected in-hospital had a longer length of stay, but this did not affect mortality (Marago and Minen, 2020; preprint with The Lancet).

Rapid roll out of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing: even at high levels of specificity, an important proportion of test results will be false positives
If 100 000 people were to be tested, 5900 people would test positive, but of these 950 would be false positives.

Assessing the extent of SARS-CoV-2 circulation through serological studies
The three studies here confirm that the world is most likely in the early stages of this pandemic, that the majority of the population remains susceptible to infection, and that antibodies may wane quite rapidly.

What is the evidence around the relative effectiveness of surgical masks to properly fitted respiratory protective equipment such as FFP2 and FFP3 masks against airborne droplet viruses: SARS, MERS, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2?
National guidance from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (Ireland) and international guidance from the WHO and ECDC regarding the use of surgical masks vs respirators is mainly in agreement that surgical masks provide sufficient protection for all encounters with COVID-19 confirmed or suspected cases, and that N95 respirators should be reserved for situations that involve or may involve the generation of aerosols.

A prospective cohort study in non-hospitalized household contacts with SARS-CoV-2 infection: symptom profiles and symptom change over time
We enrolled and prospectively observed 198 household contacts exposed to SARS-CoV-2; 47 [24%] had detectable SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR. When assessed at a single time-point, several contacts appeared to have asymptomatic infection; however, over time all developed symptoms.

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