Do established infection prevention and control measures prevent spread of SARS-CoV-2 to the hospital environment beyond the patient room?

Jerry, Jincy; O’Regan, Edel; O’Sullivan, Louise; Lynch, Maureen; Brady, Deirdre

The role of the hospital environment in the transmission of infection is well described. With an emerging infection whose mode of transmission is under investigation, strict infection prevention and control measures, including patient isolation, hand hygiene, personal protective equipment that is doffed on exiting the patient room, and environmental cleaning should be implemented to prevent spread. Environmental testing demonstrated that COVID-19 patients contaminated the patient area (11/26, 42.3% of tests) but contamination of general ward areas was minimal (1/30, 3%) and the virus was detected after cleaning on one item only (1/25, 4%) which was noted to be in disrepair.