Data@Breakfast: “Insights from the investigation of a large hospital outbreak of COVID-19: what did we learn?”

Abstract: On 4 April Dr Richard Lessells, Prof Yunus Moosa and Prof Tulio de Oliveira were tasked with conducting an outbreak investigation at St. Augustine’s Hospital in Durban, where 13 COVID-19 cases had been detected and two deaths had been recorded. Over the next few weeks, they pieced together how the virus had entered the hospital and how it had spread around the hospital, supported by SARS-CoV-2 genomic analysis conducted at KRISP. In the end, the outbreak involved up to 135 cases and 19 deaths and is so far the largest hospital outbreak in the country. In this presentation, they will explain how the outbreak investigation was done, what lessons have been learnt and what we can do to prevent similar outbreaks in other health facilities and institutions.

Bio: Dr Richard Lessells is a Senior Infectious Diseases Specialist at KRISP, UKZN. Prof Yunus Moosa is Chief Specialist and Head of Department of Infectious Diseases, UKZN. Prof Tulio de Oliveira is Director of KRISP and Research Professor in the College of Health Sciences, UKZN.