Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study

Vetrugno, Giuseppe; Sanguinetti, Maurizio; Murri, Rita; Sali, Michela; Marchetti, Simona; Santangelo, Rosaria; Fantoni, Massimo; Cingolani, Antonella; Scoppettuolo, Giancarlo; Di Donato, Michele; Grassi, Vincenzo M.; Foti, Federica; Marchese, Luca; De-Giorgio, Fabio; Oliva, Antonio; Staiti, Domenico; De Simone, Francesco Maria; Pascucci, Domenico; Cascini, Fidelia; Pastorino, Roberta; Pires Marafon, Denise; Cambieri, Andrea; Laurenti, Patrizia; Boccia, Stefania; Ricciardi, Walter; Franceschi, Francesco; on behalf of Gemelli-Against-COVID Group,

doi:10.3390/vaccines10111847

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study

by

Giuseppe Vetrugno

^1,2,

Maurizio Sanguinetti

^1,2

,

Rita Murri

^1,2

,

Michela Sali

^1,2,

Simona Marchetti

¹,

Rosaria Santangelo

^1,2,

Massimo Fantoni

^1,2

,

Antonella Cingolani

^1,2

,

Giancarlo Scoppettuolo

^1,2,

Michele Di Donato

¹,

Vincenzo M. Grassi

^1,2,

Federica Foti

^1,2,

Luca Marchese

^1,2,

Fabio De-Giorgio

^1,2,

Antonio Oliva

^1,2

,

Domenico Staiti

^1,2,

Francesco Maria De Simone

¹,

Domenico Pascucci

^1,2,*

,

Fidelia Cascini

²

,

Roberta Pastorino

^1,2,

Denise Pires Marafon

²,

Andrea Cambieri

¹,

Patrizia Laurenti

^1,2

,

Stefania Boccia

^1,2

,

Walter Ricciardi

²

,

Francesco Franceschi

^1,2 and

on behalf of Gemelli-Against-COVID Group

^† Show full author list Hide full author list

¹

Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy

²

Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Gemelli-Against-COVID Group are listed in acknowledgments.

Vaccines 2022, 10(11), 1847; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111847

Submission received: 23 September 2022 / Revised: 26 October 2022 / Accepted: 28 October 2022 / Published: 31 October 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epidemiology, Vaccination and Public Health)

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Abstract

At the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, individual and social measures were strengthened through restrictive non-pharmaceutical interventions, labelled with the term “lockdown”. In Italy, there were two lockdowns (9 March 2020–3 May 2020 and 3 November 2020–27 March 2021). As part of preventive measures, healthcare workers and the administrative staff population of Policlinico A. Gemelli underwent nasopharyngeal swab tests from 1 March 2020 to 9 February 2022, a long time interval that includes the two aforementioned lockdowns. The population included 8958 people from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2020; 8981 people from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021; and 8981 people from 1 January 2022 to 9 February 2022. We then analysed pseudo-anonymized data, using a retrospective observational approach to evaluate the impact of the lockdown on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections within the population. Given the 14 day contagious period, the swab positivity rate (SPR) among the staff decreased significantly at the end of the first lockdown, every day prior to 18 May 2020, by 0.093 (p < 0.0001, CI = (−0.138–−0.047)). After the fourteenth day post the end of the first lockdown (18 May 2020), the SPR increased daily at a rate of 0.024 (p < 0.0001, 95% CI = (0.013–0.034)). In addition, the SPR appeared to increase significantly every day prior to 17 November 2020 by 0.024 (p < 0.0001, CI = (0.013–0.034)). After the fourteenth day post the start of the second lockdown (17 November 2020), the SPR decreased daily at a rate of 0.039 (p < 0.0001, 95% CI = (−0.050–−0.027)). These data demonstrate that, in our Institution, the lockdowns helped to both protect healthcare workers and maintain adequate standards of care for COVID and non-COVID patients for the duration of the state of emergency in Italy.

Keywords: COVID-19; lockdown; swab; vaccination; healthcare workers

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MDPI and ACS Style

Vetrugno, G.; Sanguinetti, M.; Murri, R.; Sali, M.; Marchetti, S.; Santangelo, R.; Fantoni, M.; Cingolani, A.; Scoppettuolo, G.; Di Donato, M.; et al. Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study. Vaccines 2022, 10, 1847. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111847

AMA Style

Vetrugno G, Sanguinetti M, Murri R, Sali M, Marchetti S, Santangelo R, Fantoni M, Cingolani A, Scoppettuolo G, Di Donato M, et al. Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study. Vaccines. 2022; 10(11):1847. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111847

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vetrugno, Giuseppe, Maurizio Sanguinetti, Rita Murri, Michela Sali, Simona Marchetti, Rosaria Santangelo, Massimo Fantoni, Antonella Cingolani, Giancarlo Scoppettuolo, Michele Di Donato, and et al. 2022. "Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study" Vaccines 10, no. 11: 1847. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111847

APA Style

Vetrugno, G., Sanguinetti, M., Murri, R., Sali, M., Marchetti, S., Santangelo, R., Fantoni, M., Cingolani, A., Scoppettuolo, G., Di Donato, M., Grassi, V. M., Foti, F., Marchese, L., De-Giorgio, F., Oliva, A., Staiti, D., De Simone, F. M., Pascucci, D., Cascini, F., ... on behalf of Gemelli-Against-COVID Group. (2022). Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study. Vaccines, 10(11), 1847. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111847

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Effect of Lockdowns on Hospital Staff in a COVID Center: A Retrospective Observational Study

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