Risk of COVID-19 Transmission from Infected Outpatients to Healthcare Workers in an Outpatient Clinic

Hyemin Chung; Eun Ok Kim; Sung Han Kim; Jiwon Jung

doi:10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e431

Risk of COVID-19 Transmission from Infected Outpatients to Healthcare Workers in an Outpatient Clinic

J Korean Med Sci. 2020 Dec 28;35(50):e431. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e431.

Authors

Hyemin Chung¹, Eun Ok Kim², Sung Han Kim^{1

2}, Jiwon Jung^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
² Office for Infection Control, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
³ Office for Infection Control, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. [email protected].

Abstract

From January to September 2020, we conducted contact-tracing for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients who visited our outpatient clinic to evaluate the risk of COVID-19 transmission from infected patients to healthcare workers (HCWs). COVID-19 was diagnosed in 8 outpatients. Per the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction test results, none of the 317 HCWs who came in contact had a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis (0.00%; 95% confidence interval, 0.00%-0.01%). This low rate of transmission from infected outpatients to HCWs suggests that standard precaution such as using surgical mask and hand hygiene protects HCWs from SARS-CoV-2 in a low-risk, outpatient clinic setting.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare Workers; Outpatient; SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / prevention & control
COVID-19 / transmission*
Health Personnel*
Humans
Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional*
Outpatients
Personal Protective Equipment
SARS-CoV-2*