Rapid response to a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a psychiatry hospital-Kanazawa City, Japan, March to April 2020

Hirofumi Kato; Kikuno Seki; Yoshiki Maeda; Yoko Noda; Yoshitsugu Iinuma; Masami Kitaoka; Keisuke Kiso; Rie Koshida; Hitomi Kurosu; Takuya Yamagishi; Tomoe Shimada; Motoi Suzuki; Tomimasa Sunagawa

doi:10.1017/ash.2021.255

Rapid response to a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a psychiatry hospital-Kanazawa City, Japan, March to April 2020

Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2022 Apr 12;2(1):e57. doi: 10.1017/ash.2021.255. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hirofumi Kato¹, Kikuno Seki², Yoshiki Maeda², Yoko Noda³, Yoshitsugu Iinuma⁴, Masami Kitaoka⁵, Keisuke Kiso⁵, Rie Koshida⁵, Hitomi Kurosu⁶, Takuya Yamagishi^{6

7}, Tomoe Shimada⁷, Motoi Suzuki⁸, Tomimasa Sunagawa⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Virology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
² Infection Control Team, Okabe Hospital, Ishikawa, Japan.
³ Infection Control Team, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan.
⁵ Kanazawa City Public Health and Welfare Bureau, Ishikawa, Japan.
⁶ Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
⁷ Center for Field Epidemiology Intelligence, Research, and Professional Development, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
⁸ Center for Surveillance, Immunization, and Epidemiologic Research, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a psychiatry hospital revealed specific challenges in its response such as difficulty in isolation, transfer, and identification of close contacts, suboptimal infection control practices, and shortage of personal protective equipment, which were overcome by support from the public health center and a neighboring university hospital.