Occurrence of COVID-19 in a private higher education institution in the health area from the interior of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2020‒2021

Abstract

Objective to demonstrate an epidemiological overview of COVID-19 cases within a private medical school in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods: cross-sectional time series study that used data from the Biosafety Committee of a medical school. Data were collected for 13 months (October/2020−October2021) in a population of 900 individuals. Contact-, suspected-, and confirmed- cases of COVID-19 were recorded. A contact-case was considered when the individual remained in the same environment as a confirmed-case, without using a face mask. A suspected-case was considered when the individual had suggestive signs/symptoms without a confirmatory laboratory test. A confirmed-case was determined through confirmatory laboratory tests. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, rate calculation, and correlation-r. Results: during the period evaluated, 1,291 notifications were registered, with 147 confirmed-cases (average of 11.3±1.3 cases). There was no correlation between the number of contact- and suspected- or confirmed-cases. There was a positive correlation between the number of suspected- and confirmed-cases (r=0.59; p=0.03). The monthly rate of confirmed-cases varied between 0.3−2.1 per 100 persons-month. The accumulated incidence of confirmed-cases was 16.3 per 100 persons. Conclusion: there is evidence of adequate local health control, with a reduced number of confirmed-cases during the 13 months evaluated. These findings may be useful to other medical schools in managing future health crises.