A healthcare worker reacts while taking a break outside at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on April 6 in New York City. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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April 13 (UPI) -- The new coronavirus survives on the floors of hospitals treating infected patients and on the shoes of medical staff caring for them, according to new data released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report, based on findings from Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, where the global COVID-19 pandemic began, notes that 94 percent of samples taken from floors in the facility's intensive care unit -- and 100 percent of those taken from one of the general wards used to treat patients with severe symptoms -- tested positive for coronavirus during the height of the outbreak in the city.
Researchers also found that half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive for the virus, suggesting that "the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers." They cited this as a likely reason for why the floors of the hospital's pharmacy tested positive for the virus, despite the fact that COVID-19 patients were not allowed in that area.
"As medical staff walk around the ward, the virus can be tracked all over the floor, as indicated by the 100 percent rate of positivity from the floor in the pharmacy, where there were no patients," the authors wrote.
In general, the authors believe that respiratory droplets falling to the floor were moved by both gravity and airflow, leading to distribution of the virus.
They also documented that the virus' presence lingered on "objects that were frequently touched by medical staff or patients." Six of eight computer mice tested positive, as did three of five trash cans in the ICU, six of 14 sickbed handrails and a doorknob in the general ward. Sporadic positive results were also obtained from sleeve cuffs and gloves of medical staff.
"These results suggest that medical staff should perform hand hygiene practices immediately after patient contact," the authors wrote.
The findings are significant because a study out of Italy, published last month by The Lancet, found that as many as one of five healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 may get infected with the virus. Although there is no complete count of how many U.S. healthcare workers have been sickened, estimates suggest several thousand have so far tested positive.
