Increasing risk of breakthrough COVID-19 in outbreaks with high attack rates in European long-term care facilities, July to October 2021
C. Suetens, Pete Kinross, Pilar Gallego, Virginia Arroyo Nebreda, Eline Hassan, Clémentine Calba, Eugénia Fernandes, André Peralta‐Santos, Pedro Casaca, Nathalie Shodu, Sara Dequeker, Flora Kontopidou, Lamprini Pappa, Oliver Kacelnik, Anita Wang Børseth, Lois O’Connor, Patricia Garvey, Rasa Liausedienė, Rolanda Valintėlienė, Corinna Ernst, Joël Mossong, Mária Štefkovičová, Zuzana Prostináková, Ann Caroline Danielsen, Aikaterini Mougkou, Favelle Lamb, Orlando Cenciarelli, Dominique L. Monnet, Diamantis Plachouras
Abstract
We collected data from 10 EU/EEA countries on 240 COVID-19 outbreaks occurring from July-October 2021 in long-term care facilities with high vaccination coverage. Among 17,268 residents, 3,832 (22.2%) COVID-19 cases were reported. Median attack rate was 18.9% (country range: 2.8-52.4%), 17.4% of cases were hospitalised, 10.2% died. In fully vaccinated residents, adjusted relative risk for COVID-19 increased with outbreak attack rate. Findings highlight the importance of early outbreak detection and rapid containment through effective infection prevention and control measures.