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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has recommended 3 pragmatic changes to the current management of COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures.
Dr Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology, University of Reading, said:
“These recommendations on COVID-19 infection prevention and control seem generally reasonable and should be implemented where they can improve access to healthcare. The removal of the requirement for negative PCR testing before certain procedures for fully vaccinated, low risk patients reflects the level of protection that the vaccine provides against severe disease. However, false negative test results will mean that some asymptomatically infected patients will be put on wards with vulnerable patients.
“The removal of enhanced cleaning smacks of corner cutting. It is based on observations of by SPI-B1 that hand hygiene is likely to be more effective than surface cleaning in controlling the coronavirus, but that does not mean it is unimportant and can safely be cut. Moreover, SPI-B are a committee of behavioural scientists, not virologists or microbiologists and they are unlikely to be qualified to make such judgements. Indeed, SPI-B cite a NERVTAG paper2 which also called for further studies in this area, rather than leaning on any hard data. Enhanced cleaning is common in healthcare settings which are exposed to influenza patients so it seems that penny pinching by removal of enhanced hygiene measures may well lead to transmission of COVID-19 and other infections in our hospitals.”
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