NHS Workers in Coronavirus Study Weren’t Informed of Infections

(Bloomberg) --

A clinical study of coronavirus infection rates among asymptomatic U.K. health-care workers allowed dozens of medical staff to remain on the job after becoming infected with Covid-19.

The study ran 16 weekly tests on 400 workers and administrators at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London starting in late March, around when the virus was peaking in the U.K., according to the report published in The Lancet. The staff weren’t given the results and those who went into self-isolation after exposure or showing symptoms renewed testing after returning to work, the report said.

The test results were anonymized and not immediately shared with the researchers, who didn’t receive the data until three to four weeks after testing, the Telegraph newspaper reported. Twenty-eight people were positive in the first week at the peak of the outbreak, with seven testing positive over two tests with one giving a positive result three times, the study showed.

That infection rate among workers tested in the study was 7.1% the first week when the outbreak was peaking in London and declined to 1.1% after five weeks of lockdown. The study concluded that the infection rate among asymptomatic health-care workers is about the same as that of the general population, and the results show there is no need for people suffering from other maladies to avoid getting hospital treatment, which could aggravate their conditions.

“These data suggest that the rate of asymptomatic infection among HCWs more likely reflects general community transmission than in-hospital exposure,” the report said. “Prospective patients should be reassured that as the overall epidemic wave recedes, asymptomatic infection among HCWs is low and unlikely to be a major source of transmission, the report said.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.