The protective effect of previous COVID-19 infection in a high-prevalence hospital setting
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Favian Narrainen; Ian Blyth; Hibo Asad; Abigail Holborow; Brendan Healy; Madeleine Shakeshaft
- Source
- Clin Med (Lond)
- Subject
- medicine.medical_specialty
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
business.industry
Hospital setting
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
Health Personnel
Outbreak
COVID-19
General Medicine
Odds ratio
Hospitals
Health personnel
Internal medicine
Prevalence
Medicine
Humans
business
Original Research
- Language
- ISSN
- 1473-4893
OBJECTIVE: To assess the protective effect of previous COVID-19 infection for healthcare workers in a high-prevalence setting. METHOD: The COVID-19 antibody and PCR results of 538 healthcare workers on wards with COVID-19 outbreaks from 1 March 2020 to 31 July 2020 were evaluated. Infection rates of the 'previously infected' and 'no evidence of previous infection' groups were compared during second-wave outbreaks between 29 September 2020 and 20 November 2020. RESULTS: One out of 115 individuals previously infected developed infection compared with 104 out of 423 individuals with no evidence of previous infection. Attack rates in staff previously infected was reduced significantly from 24.59% to 0.87% (odds ratio 0.027, 95% CI 0.004-0.195, p