Stats showing that COVID-19 is being acquired by a higher-than-expected amount of health care workers prompted the premise of the Louisville Coronavirus Surveillance Program, a study from the University of Louisville designed to establish a surveillance system for early identification of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to allow for early implementation of infection control interventions in an attempt to prevent transmission of COVID-19 to HCWs and other hospitalized patients.
From the abstract:
"We are proposing to test all patients who present to the emergency departments and/or are hospitalized with signs and symptoms of respiratory infection or gastrointestinal infection for SARS-CoV-2, regardless of clinical suspicion of COVID-19. Biological samples obtained from all patients having symptoms of respiratory or gastrointestinal infection will be tested using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for detection of SARS-CoV-2. Using a robotic instrument, the CMP laboratory will be able to test more than 500 samples a day. Data will be reported in real-time to participating hospitals for rapid implementation of infection control measures."
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