key: cord-310687-qw164eyl
authors: Chan, Ming-Chin; Cho, Tzu-Jou; Chang, Feng-Yee; Lin, Jung-Chung
title: Surveillance for Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) among Health Care Workers at a Medical Center in Taiwan, March to August 2020
date: 2020-09-01
journal: J Formos Med Assoc
DOI: 10.1016/j.jfma.2020.08.037
sha: 
doc_id: 310687
cord_uid: qw164eyl

nan

Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been singled out, by mass screening supporters, as a high-risk group which are particularly in need to be mass-screened for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus or anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, despite the fact that all Taiwanese

HCWs have been fully protected by personal protective equipment (PPE) including N95 mask and protective clothing since the beginning of the pandemic. If HCWs are indeed at high risk of contracting and carrying SARS-CoV-2 virus, then the current HCWs virological surveillance for COVID-19 should be able to detect SARS-CoV-2-positive cases among HCWs. Therefore, we reviewed the HCWs surveillance results at our hospital.

Our hospital is one of major medical centers designated for COVID-19 treatment in Taipei, and successfully treated 29 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases during the period from February 4, 2020 to July 6, 2020. 5 Since March 31, 2020, in consistent with Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center's HCWs surveillance policy, 5 all HCWs who developed fever or any respiratory symptoms were required to be tested for SARS-CoV-2 regardless of the presence of occupational exposure history or not . By August 15, 2020, a total 195 HCWs

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