• Cheng Vincent C C VCC Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Infection Control Team, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong K, Shuk-Ching Wong, Vivien W M Chuang, Simon Y C So, Chen Jonathan H K JHK Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China., Siddharth Sridhar, To Kelvin K W KKW Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China., Chan Jasper F W JFW Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China., Hung Ivan F N IFN Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China., Pak-Leung Ho, and Kwok-Yung Yuen.
• Department of Microbiology, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Infection Control Team, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong West Cluster, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
• Am J Infect Control. 2020 Aug 1; 48 (8): 890-896.

BackgroundTo describe the infection control strategy to achieve zero nosocomial transmission of symptomatic coronavirus disease (COVID-19) due to SARS-CoV-2 during the prepandemic phase (the first 72 days after announcement of pneumonia cases in Wuhan) in Hong Kong.MethodsAdministrative support with the aim of zero nosocomial transmission by reducing elective clinical services, decanting wards, mobilizing isolation facilities, providing adequate personal protective equipment, coordinating laboratory network for rapid molecular diagnosis under 4-tier active surveillance for hospitalized patients and outpatients, and organizing staff forum and training was implemented under the framework of preparedness plan in Hospital Authority. The trend of SARS-CoV-2 in the first 72 days was compared with that of SARS-CoV 2003.ResultsUp to day 72 of the epidemic, 130 (0.40%) of 32,443 patients being screened confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Compared with SARS outbreak in 2003, the SARS-CoV-2 case load constituted 8.9% (130 SARS-CoV-2/1458 SARS-CoV) of SARS-CoV infected cases at day 72 of the outbreak. The incidences of nosocomial acquisition of SARS-CoV per 1,000 SARS-patient-day and per 100 SARS-patient-admission were 7.9 and 16.9, respectively, which were significantly higher than the corresponding incidences of SARS-CoV-2 (zero infection, P <.001).ConclusionsAdministrative support to infection control could minimize the risk of nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Copyright © 2020 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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