As part of the COVID-19 Outbreak investigation to Understand Transmission study (COVID-OUT) study, environmental surface sampling was conducted at workplaces reporting cases of COVID-19 within their workforce to establish areas of contamination within workplaces, potential routes of transmission, and to learn lessons from workplace outbreaks which can be incorporated into wider guidance.

Prior to this study, few published reports investigated SARS-CoV-2 RNA contamination within workplaces experiencing cases of COVID-19. This report provides extensive data on environmental sampling identifying trends across workplaces and through the pandemic.

Note this article is a preprint and has not yet been formally peer-reviewed.

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