Effectiveness of protective measures in hospitals in Ticino

A study performed in Ticino in Spring 2020, on data of SARS-CoV-2 serological tests run on healthcare workers, shows that COVID-19 antibodies are detectable in up to 10% of the participants. Such a result are comparable with the ones of the Corona Immunitas study conducted on the Ticino population. More importantly, it shows that healthcare workers with exposure to COVID-19 patients have only a slightly higher absolute risk of seropositivity than those without, suggesting that the use of protective measures in hospitals aiming at reducing nosocomial viral transmission are effective. The study was made possible thanks to the collaboration between the EOC, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI), Humabs BioMed (a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology), USI Institute of Public Health, Clinica Luganese di Moncucco (CLM), Cardiocentro Ticino and Hildebrand clinic. It involved 4,726 healthcare workers from hospitals in the Canton. The study's goal was to assess whether those involved in the hospital care of COVID-19 cases are presumably exposed to a higher risk of getting the disease than the general population. The results were published recently ain the collection Regional Health Europe  of the renowned journal Lancet.