The aerosol microenvironment is dynamic, exposing pathogens, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus, when exhaled in respiratory aerosol to extreme conditions of solute concentration, pH, and evaporative cooling. Yet surviving this environment...
UK local authorities that experience sustained high levels of COVID-19 are described as areas of enduring prevalence. This research, from Theme 3 of the PROTECT NCS, and published in the BMC journal of Public Health, was carried out to investigate reasons for...
Effectively implementing strategies to curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) requires understanding who is contagious and when. Whilst viral load (VL) on upper respiratory swabs has commonly been used to infer contagiousness, measuring viral...
In March 2021, an outbreak of COVID-19 occurred at a plastics manufacturing workplace in the United Kingdom, and an initial investigation was conducted by Public Health England’s local Health Protection Team. After notification of this outbreak, the COVID-OUT team...
During 2020, excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic varied over time and by occupation. Essential workers, particularly those in healthcare, had higher excess mortality than non-essential workers throughout 2020 in England and Wales.The first national lockdown...
This study from Theme 1 researchers of the PROTECT NCS used novel national data linkages to identify potential risk factors of workplace COVID-19 clusters, including possible protective effects of vaccination and increased physical distance at work. This e-print...
Airborne transmission is an infection route for many pathogens such as Tuberculosis (TB), Influenza and more recently SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). With respiratory diseases already being a major contributor to pressure on hospital systems such as the...
This paper by PROTECT theme 3 researchers and the Virus Watch community cohort study, investigates how occupational differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection risk has changed over time, and includes updated data from the Omicron wave in England and Wales. Most pronounced...
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,...
People who test positive for COVID-19 and breathe out virus are more likely to infect their household members than via virus sampled in their nose and throatPeople are most likely to breathe out high amounts of virus early on when they are infectedIf participants were...
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