Singapore is currently seeing a sharp rise in clusters and isolated cases in high-risk environments such as hospitals, airports, and seaports. Beside a more robust rostered routine testing regime for front-liners, what else can be done?
An observational study by Kataria et al. (2021) compared risk factors between seropositive and seronegative health care workers (HCWs, n=1743) in a medical centre in Boston.
They found that seropositivity was not associated with gender, occupation, hand hygiene, and PPE practices amongst HCWs. However, the lack of physical distancing among HCWs in work areas and break rooms was associated with seropositivity. (Click here to article)
This highlights the importance of safe distancing measures in a workplace to help prevent transmission.
If you are in Singapore, you may refer to our Ministry of Manpower for the latest advisories for Safe Management Measures. https://www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19/requirements-for-safe-management-measures
In the hospital setting, Keller et al. (2021) proposed some measures that medical units can take to improve physical distancing. (Click here to article)
References:
Kataria, Y., Cole, M., Duffy, E., de la Cena, K., Schechter-Perkins, E. M., Bouton, T. C., Werler, M. M., Pierre, C., Ragan, E. J., Weber, S. E., Jacobson, K. R., & Andry, C. (2021). Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies and risk factors in health care workers at an academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. Scientific reports, 11(1), 9694. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89107-5
Keller, S. C., Pau, S., Salinas, A. B., Oladapo-Shittu, O., Cosgrove, S. E., Lewis-Cherry, R., Vecchio-Pagan, B., Osei, P., Gurses, A. P., Rock, C., Sick-Samuels, A. C., & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epicenters Program (2021). Barriers to physical distancing among healthcare workers on an academic hospital unit during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 1–7. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2021.154