Background There is limited data on frontline health-care workers and risk of COVID-19 from the developing nations. It is imperative to identify those at higher risk to prevent further transmission. We assessed the relationship between exposure risk and COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers who were primary contacts of a COVID-19 patient. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted among front-line health-care workers in a tertiary care hospital who were exposed to a COVID-19 patient. Information on demographic factors, medical history, exposure related factors and subsequently COVID-19 lab reports were collected. An exposure risk assessment designed collating various exposure related factors categorized the participants into those with high and low risk. We used logistic regression to estimate the odds ratio of our primary outcome, a positive COVID-19 test when the independent variables were exposure risk, age, gender and occupation. Results Among1858 frontline workers who were primary contacts of a COVID-19 patient at the hospital, 106 (5.7%) incident reports of a positive COVID-19 test were recorded. None of the exposure related factors had any significant association with a positive COVID-19 test. However, high exposure risk category was significantly associated with COVID-19 positive test at the end of quarantine. Conclusion COVID-19 was more frequent among front-line health-care workers who belonged to high exposure category. Education at different levels of service delivery at hospitals is required for best practice in order to prevent COVID-19 among health care providers. There is need to develop additional strategies to ensure that the information is translated in to practice.
Background: Health care workers are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. There is a high risk of them contracting the infection and then transmitting it to vulnerable patients and colleagues. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the prevalence and risk factors among HCWs. This study describes the characteristics of healthcare workers who tested positive for COVID-19 in a tertiary care hospital in India.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs from a tertiary care center with a real-time - polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test positive for COVID-19 on a nasopharyngeal swab from July 2020 to January 2021. All healthcare workers with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were contacted over the telephone to collect data regarding their probable source of contact, usage of personal protective equipment, and clinical course. Their treatment history was extracted using electronic health records.Results: During the study period, 192 HCWs were RT-PCR positive for COVID-19. The mean age of the study participants was 34.01 years. Among the infected, 23.4% were male employees, while the remaining 76.6% were female employees. Nurses were most commonly affected (36.5%), followed by doctors (22.9%) and housekeeping staff (15.6%). Infected HCWs acquired the infection from the hospital in 73.4% of cases, while 38.6% had direct contact with patients or colleagues.Conclusions: HCWs have an increased risk of COVID-19 infection at the workplace. Strengthening of infection control measures as well as strict follow-up of precautionary measures needs to be ensured, even during break time and work hours.
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