Epidemic Curve of Contamination in a Hospital That Served as Sentinel of the Spread of the SARS-Cov-2 Epidemic in the City of Rio de Janeiro

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the operation of Brazilian hospital units, even those dedicated to non-infectious diseases. This study aims to describe the Covid-19 epidemic curve from a cardiovascular specialized nosocomial unit. All symptomatic employees were submitted to RT-qPCR. A total of 613 tests were performed on 548 employees between March 23, 2020, and June 4, 2020; with 45.7% positivity from the samples, representing 11.9% of the total employees. The epidemic curve showed a profound drop after the first week of May. The data showed a high contamination rate despite the widespread availability of personal protective equipment and employees training.