Less than half of COVID-19 patients report recent contact with infected person
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Less than half of inpatients and outpatients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection reported recent contact with an infected person, according to survey results published in MMWR.
“Reports documenting exposures to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have generally been described within congregate settings, such as meat and poultry processing plants and long-term care facilities,” the authors wrote. “Understanding individual behaviors and demographic characteristics of patients with COVID-19 and risks for severe illness requiring hospitalization can inform efforts to transmission.”
The researchers conducted a multistate phone survey of 350 adult outpatients and inpatients with positive test results for SARS-CoV-2. Approximately 45% of participants reported that their contact was a family member, and 34% reported their contact was a work colleague. Additionally, two-thirds of participants reported they were employed, and only 17% reported being able to perform telework.
Outpatients reported being employed more often than inpatients (70% vs. 42%, respectively), and 25% of employed participants worked in health care. Just 46% were aware of close contact with a COVID-19 patient, underlining “a need for increased screening, case investigation, contact tracing and isolation of infected persons during periods of community transmission,” the authors wrote.
One-third of symptomatic outpatients reported not returning to baseline health 14 to 21 days following testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared with nearly all outpatients who, in an earlier study, reported returning to normal activity within 2 weeks of illness onset during the 2012-2013 influenza season, the researchers noted.
“A range of symptoms should prompt testing for SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers wrote. “The wide range of symptoms reported, and the lack of known COVID-19 contact in 54% of patients, underscores the need for isolation of infected persons, contact tracing and testing during ongoing community transmission, and prevention measures including social distancing and use of cloth face coverings.”
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts