Contact Tracing for COVID-19 among Health-Care Workers of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Mumbai

Contact tracing (CT) is an effective tool for breaking the chains of transmission in infectious disease outbreaks. This study was conducted to observe the trend of isolation and quarantine, assess the source of infection and contacts, and assess the effectiveness of CT in the early detection of infection among health-care workers (HCWs).

This study was conducted using secondary analysis of routine CT records of HCWs of a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai from April 9, 2020, to December 31, 2020. Details of all HCWs exposed or infected with COVID-19 were collected in a standard format developed for this purpose telephonically. The exposed HCWs were further divided into high-risk (HR)/low-risk (LR) contacts and quarantined.

A total of 744 HCWs were isolated during this period and 1486 contacts were quarantined against them. Majority of the HCWs affected from COVID-19 were resident doctors, interns, and nursing staff. More than 81% of the positive HCWs were symptomatic. The overall ratio between isolated HCWs and quarantined HCWs is 1:2. A total of 88 (6%) HCWs tested positive from quarantine. The test positivity rate among HR contacts was 9.01% and among LR contacts was 2.72%.

Effective CT of positive HCWs greatly aids in the early identification of contacts and timely quarantine. Over a period of time, the number of HCWs getting isolated or quarantined is found to decrease. This is the true success of CT. This strategy can be implemented among other medical colleges and hospitals too.