Recent work demonstrated that detection of SARS-CoV-2 on the floor of long-term care facilities is associated with impending COVID-19 outbreaks. It is unknown if similar results will be observed in hospitals.

Floor swabs were prospectively collected weekly from healthcare worker-only areas (eg, staff locker rooms) at two hospitals in Ontario, Canada for 39 weeks. Floor swabs were processed for SARS-CoV-2 using quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Results were reported as percentage of positive floor swabs and viral copy number. Grouped fivefold cross-validation was used to evaluate model outbreak discrimination.

SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected on 537 of 760 floor swabs (71%). At Hospital A, overall positivity was 90% (95% CI: 85%–93%; N = 280); at Hospital B, overall positivity was 60% (95% CI: 55%–64%; N = 480). There were four COVID-19 outbreaks at Hospital A and seven at Hospital B during the study period. The outbreaks consisted of primarily patient cases (ie, 140 patient cases and 4 staff cases). For every 10-fold increase in viral copies, there was a 22-fold higher odds of a COVID-19 outbreak (OR = 22.0, 95% CI 7.3, 91.8). The cross-validated area under the receiver operating curve for SARS-CoV-2 viral copies for predicting a contemporaneous outbreak was 0.86 (95% CI 0.82–0.90).

Viral burden of SARS-CoV-2 on floors, even in healthcare worker-only areas, was strongly associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in those hospital wards. Built environment sampling may support hospital COVID-19 outbreak identification, fill gaps in traditional surveillance, and guide infection prevention and control measures.