Background: Extensive environmental contamination by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported in hospitals during pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We highlighted the practice of directly-observed environmental disinfection (DOED) in the community isolation facility (CIF) and community treatment facility (CTF) in Hong Kong. Methods: CIF (250 single-room bungalows in a holiday camp) was opened on July 24, 2020 to receive step-down patients from hospitals, while CTF (500-bed of open-cubicle inside a conventional hall) was activated on August 1, 2020 to admit newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients from the community. Healthcare workers (HCWs) and cleaning staff received infection control training to reinforce donning and doffing of personal protective equipment and understand the practice of DOED, where the cleaning staff observed patients’ and staff activities and then performed environmental disinfection immediately after their use. Supervisors also observed cleaning staff to ensure the quality of work. In CTF, air and environmental samples were collected on day 7, 14, 21, and 28 for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR, while patients’ compliance of wearing mask was recorded. Results: Of 291 HCWs and 54 cleaning staff, who managed 243 and 674 patients in CIF and CTF, respectively, from July 24 to August 29, 2020, none of them acquired COVID-19. All 24 air samples and 520 environmental samples collected in the patient area of CTF were negative for SARS-CoV-2. Patients’ compliance of wearing mask was 100%. Conclusion: With appropriate infection control measures, zero environmental contamination and nosocomial acquisition of COVID-19 among HCWs and cleaning staff could be achieved.

Implementation of the multidisciplinary three-in-one pelvic damage control protocol reduces mortality and therefore should be highly recommended. The results are convincing as it has eliminated the limitations of our previous single-centred trial.

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When compared to less frequent fallers, more frequent fallers had a lower risk for injury per fall. This appeared to be explained by differences in the circumstances of falls, and not by protective responses. Injury prevention strategies in long-term care should target both frequent and infrequent fallers, as the latter are more mobile and apt to sustain injury.

Letter to the Editor Infection control challenge in setting up a temporary test centre at Hong Kong International Airport for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 due to SARS-CoV-2 Sir, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected >3.3 million people and caused 238,628 deaths [1]. With reference to our experience of the SARS-CoV outbreak [2], pandemic influenza A virus H1N1 [3] and sporadic cases of avian influenza A virus H7N9 [4] in Hong Kong, we implemented proactive infection control measures including active surveillance, isolation of suspected and confirmed cases in airborne infection isolation rooms (AIIRs), provision of rapid molecular diagnostic testing, and notification to the Hospital Authority and Department of Health, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [5,6]. However, the AIIRs in the hospitals in Hong Kong were fully occupied due to an increasing number of symptomatic people returning from countries with local transmission, as well as an increasing number of COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong, and it was thought that suspected cases of COVID-19 might need to be hospitalized in non-AIIRs, which would pose a potential risk to healthcare workers (HCWs).