COVID-19: Social Distancing Through 2022? / Infection in Healthcare Workers

By Kelly Young

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Lorenzo Di Francesco, MD, FACP, FHM

Have a look at some of the latest news on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19):

Modeling future SARS-CoV-2 transmission: Virus surveillance and intermittent social distancing may have to be sustained until 2022 if new drugs, vaccines, or aggressive contact tracing and quarantine aren't effective, according to a modeling study in Science. The authors say that flare-ups of the virus could occur through 2025, even after stretches of apparent elimination. The incidence of illness in the next 5 years will "depend critically upon whether or not it enters into regular circulation after the initial pandemic wave, which in turn depends primarily upon the duration of immunity that SARS-CoV-2 infection imparts."

Infection in healthcare workers: Nearly 9300 U.S. healthcare workers had contracted the virus as of April 9, and in MMWR, officials say this is likely an underestimate. Of 1400 workers who reported contact with a COVID-19 patient before their own diagnosis, 55% had contact only in a healthcare setting, 27% only in a household, 13% only in the community, and 5% in more than one setting. The authors recommend "screening all [healthcare workers] for fever and respiratory symptoms at the beginning of their shifts, prioritizing [them] for testing, and ensuring options to discourage working while ill (e.g., flexible and nonpunitive medical leave policies)."

A second MMWR article looks at three healthcare workers who developed COVID-19 after unprotected exposures to the first case of community-acquired COVID-19 in the U.S. The workers who developed COVID-19 had longer exposures to the patient and were more likely to be present for nebulizer treatments, compared with workers who didn't become infected.

Review on treatments: In JAMA, authors review various treatment options for COVID-19 and lay out the evidence as it currently exists. No therapies have yet been proven effective, but they assert that remdesivir holds the most promise so far.

Iceland testing: Roughly 6% of Iceland's population had been tested for SARS-CoV-2 as of April 4, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study. Of those recruited for targeted testing because of exposure risk, 13% tested positive. Among the general population, the proportion who tested positive ranged from 0.6% to 0.8%. During the screening period, the percentage of infected people who were identified through population screening held steady, which the authors say speaks to the nation's containment efforts.

Measles vaccine: Children could miss out on the measles vaccine as COVID-19 spreads. In areas where vaccination efforts are on hold, the Measles & Rubella Initiative urges leaders "to intensify efforts to track unvaccinated children, so that the most vulnerable populations can be provided with measles vaccines as soon as it becomes possible to do so."