Researchers collected 510 air samples from various clinical areas of West Roxbury VA Medical Center in Boston during a COVID-19 outbreak that infected 19 patients and staff members between Dec. 27, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021.
Researchers found genetically identical viral fragments in aerosols collected from nurses stations and in samples from patients or staff infected during the outbreak, “suggesting that aerosols may have contributed to hospital transmission,” they said.
Based on the temporal sequence of transmission, researchers said a symptomatic nurse may have introduced the virus in the affected hospital unit, which then spread to other nurses and patients.
“Surveillance, along with ventilation, masking and distancing, may reduce the introduction of community-acquired SARS-CoV-2 into aerosols on hospital wards, thereby reducing the risk of hospital transmission,” researchers concluded.
View the full study here.
Editor’s note: This article was updated June 10 at 10:20 a.m. CT.
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