Effective risk management strategy prevented severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission in three private hospitals in Hong Kong throughout the pandemic

To the Editor—The subtropical city of Hong Kong has responded to the threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with a local elimination strategy,1 focusing on preventing virus introductions with border controls and timely application of public health and social measures to control community outbreaks if and when they occur.2,3 As part of the public health response, all confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 are isolated in designated public hospitals with isolation beds set up for this purpose. Aggressive contact tracing of any COVID-19 patient admitted or any staff member that is infected from the community is performed in these hospitals as required by the Department of Health. COVID-19 Infections in 3 Private Hospitals With Data Related to Stage 1 and 2 Procedures and Community Infections of Staff Pandemic Period Under Evaluation: Jan 2020 to 16 July 2021 (18.5 mo) Hospital A B C Total Total hospital beds 334 123 226 683 Data related to stage 1 procedures Total cases attending Emergency Room during the Pandemic 133,560 (7,220/mo) 100,565 (5,435/mo) 52,712 (2,849/mo) 2,868,837 Total days of cases during pandemic (hemodialysis, day surgery, endoscopy, chemotherapy) 7,431 (402/mo) 6,722 (363/mo) 25,042 (1,354/mo) 39,195 Total in-patient admissions during the pandemic 29,925 (1,609/mo) 10,895 (588/mo) 12,568 (697/mo) 53,388 SARS-CoV-2 PCR test done, no. 38,773 22,466 20,777 82,016 Confirmed COVID-19 cases transferred to designated HKDH hospitals, no. 39 16 22 77 Data related to stage 2 procedures No. of patients tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 but isolated in a single room for suspected infection 1,263 294 404 1,961 No. of patients positive after isolation 1 0 0 1 Contacts subsequently quarantined by HKDH, no. 0 0 0 0 Data related to community infection of staff with COVID No. of staff infected with community-acquired COVID-19 1 0 3 4 Contact tracing done to evaluate exposures to the infected staff 14 staff and 4 patients 0 72 staff and 10 patients 85 staff and 14 patients Contacts subsequently quarantined by Department of Health Hong Kong 1 staff 0 7 staff and 0 patients 8 staff and 0 patients Final outcome No of staff and patients with secondary hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection 0 0 0 0 Table 1 also shows the number of community-acquired SARS-COV-2 infections among hospital staff, which led to substantial contact tracing efforts.