Open AccessCase Report – Possible Manufacturing Workplace Transmission of COVID-19
Author(s) -
J.H. Murphy
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
canadian journal of infection control
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1183-5702
DOI - 10.36584/cjic.2020.012
Subject(s) - workforce , covid-19 , neighbourhood (mathematics) , apartment , cluster (spacecraft) , transmission (telecommunications) , business , operations management , engineering , medicine , economic growth , computer science , economics , civil engineering , telecommunications , mathematics , mathematical analysis , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language
A COVID-19 cluster was identified in an industrial manufacturing workforce soon after being recalled to the workplace following a furlough period. All cases in the cluster (21/85) were male, worked on one side of the plant, and took breaks and lunch together. Allnon-cases worked on the opposite side of the plant and similarly took breaks and lunch together. Review of the timing of return from furlough determined that workplace transmission was possible. However, a high percentage of the cases lived in apartment settings where high neighbourhood incidence rates were observed, whereas that was not the case for non-cases. The investigation illustrates the difficulties of distinguishing potential occupational from community transmission.