Mitigation of a Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak in a Nursing Home Through Serial Testing of Residents and Staff

Daniel J Escobar; Maria Lanzi; Pouné Saberi; Ruby Love; Darren R Linkin; John J Kelly; Darshana Jhala; Valerianna Amorosa; Mary Hofmann; Jeffrey B Doyon

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa1021

Mitigation of a Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak in a Nursing Home Through Serial Testing of Residents and Staff

Clin Infect Dis. 2021 May 4;72(9):e394-e396. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1021.

Authors

Daniel J Escobar^{1

2}, Maria Lanzi³, Pouné Saberi^{2

3

4}, Ruby Love⁵, Darren R Linkin^{1

2

6}, John J Kelly^{1

2

6}, Darshana Jhala^{2

7

8}, Valerianna Amorosa^{1

2

6}, Mary Hofmann^{2

5

9}, Jeffrey B Doyon^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
² Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
³ Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁴ Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁵ Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁶ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁷ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁸ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
⁹ Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Abstract

Nursing homes and long-term care facilities represent highly vulnerable environments for respiratory disease outbreaks, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We describe a COVID-19 outbreak in a nursing home that was rapidly contained by using a universal testing strategy of all residents and nursing home staff.

Keywords: nursing home; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; outbreak response; universal testing.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Disease Outbreaks
Humans
Nursing Homes
SARS-CoV-2
Skilled Nursing Facilities