More than a dozen UNC Health employees test positive for the coronavirus
A dozen employees at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill have tested positive for coronavirus and are out of work and in quarantine at home, according to a hospital spokesman.
UNC Health spokesman Alan Wolf said most of the employees appear to have contracted the virus outside of the medical center and that less than half of them work with patients. The positive test results were first reported by WRAL-TV.
Wolf said in addition to the dozen workers who are currently out, other UNC workers tested positive earlier and have completed their quarantine periods and been allowed to return to work.
“We’ve had an aggressive containment strategy for months, following CDC guidance to ensure they remain in isolation, receive the appropriate treatment and monitoring, and are cleared before they return to work,” Wolf said in a written statement.
Doctors, nurses and other health care workers are more likely to come in contact with people infected with coronavirus. More than 9,000 health care workers nationwide had contracted the virus as of April 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday, and 27 had died of COVID-19.
The CDC said those estimates were likely low, because a person’s occupation was reported in less than quarter of all cases.
UNC Health disclosed the positive cases after being asked by a reporter. Other hospitals and health systems have not volunteered information about coronavirus cases among their staffs.
Asked about a potential case at WakeMed early this month, a spokeswoman declined to confirm it.
“We know that in the coming weeks and months many healthcare professionals here and across our region and state will contract the COVID-19 virus,” Kristin Kelly wrote in an email. “Just as we respect the privacy of our patients, we will respect the privacy of our incredibly dedicated team. WakeMed will not be commenting or providing any information on the status of our employees.”
Duke Health, which has three hospitals in Durham and Raleigh, released a statement late Wednesday acknowledging that it, too, has had employees test positive for coronavirus. Duke says it screens workers before they enter places where they will encounter patients.
“Any team members with symptoms concerning for COVID are tested and cleared prior to returning to work,” the Duke statement said. “We have also had employees who are COVID+, but continue to see a much lower rate of infection among tested employees than what we see among community/patients tested.”
UNC has tested “hundreds” of the 13,000 employees the medical center in Chapel Hill, either because they have shown symptoms of coronavirus or are considered a higher risk, because of travel, household contacts or contacts on the job, Wolf said.
There has been no evidence that an employee who tested positive spread the virus to others at UNC Medical Center, Wolf said. Patients who came in contact with a positive employee are notified, he said, and co-workers are sent home for 14 days and monitored.
He said that aggressive testing allowed UNC to detect the coronavirus cases early and prevent spread.
“Coronavirus is everywhere,” Wolf said. “But UNC Health uses a robust identification and isolation approach that is second to none.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:51 PM.