COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: How does size influence transmission dynamics? A cross-sectional study with implications for outbreak management in small care homes
Catherine Carey, Éamonn O’Moore, Rita Huyton, Steve Willner, Anand Fernandes, Will Morton, Martyn Regan, Jackie Cassell · 2025
Read COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: How does size influence transmission dynamics? A cross-sectional study with implications for outbreak management in small care homes by Catherine Carey, Éamonn O’Moore, Rita Huyton, Steve Willner, Anand Fernandes, Will Morton, Martyn Regan, Jackie Cassell (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12813716.txt.
Description
Catherine Carey and co-authors study COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes in England in a 2025 report. The team asks whether the size of a home changes how fast the virus spreads once an outbreak starts. Data cover two waves, the second wave in late 2020 and early 2021 and the Omicron wave that followed.
Records from health and care agencies were matched to home size and age mix, covering more than 90,000 positive cases. Small homes with ten or fewer beds showed far higher early rates, with many residents positive at the start. Larger homes rose much more slowly. The authors argue that small homes need outbreak plans that fit shared living, not plans copied from large sites.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Catherine Carey, Éamonn O’Moore, Rita Huyton, Steve Willner, Anand Fernandes, Will Morton, Martyn Regan, Jackie Cassell |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 26 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |