The COVID-19 pandemic: major risks to healthcare and other workers on the front line

Sim, Malcolm Ross

doi:10.1136/oemed-2020-106567

Cited by 290 publications

(288 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Taken together, these suggest that the covid-19 pandemic may exacerbate occupational hazards beyond the more obvious examples of healthcare settings or other jobs on the front line. 4 For employers, maximising health benefits of teleworking in times of containment while minimising its negative impacts constitutes a continuity in their duty to preserve the health of their employees. To do so, they should provide key messages specifically tailored to an unanticipated and anxietyprovoking context in which employees may struggle to adapt their homes and lifestyles to telework.…”

Section: Lettermentioning

confidence: 99%

Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health?

et al. 2020

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Section: Lettermentioning

confidence: 99%

Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health?

et al. 2020

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“…Healthcare professionals are at the forefront of the COVID-19 outbreak response. Hence, their risk of infection is greater than the general population[17].Therefore, it is vital that healthcare professional have adequate KAP regarding diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Here we assessed the KAP of medical interns toward COIVD-19 prevention in KSA.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Medical Interns Toward COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey, April-May 2020

Alnohair¹,

Mahmud²,

Alshehri³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: COVID-19 is a highly infectious, rapidly spreading disease without any proven vaccine or treatment. Poor knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) toward COIVD-19 prevention measures among healthcare workers may lead to further transmission of the disease. Lack of attention towards non-frontline healthcare workers may put them at higher risk of infection from undetected cases. Here, we evaluate medical interns’ KAP toward COVID-19 prevention measures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey. We distributed a structured questionnaire to the medical interns through different social media. Data was collected between April and May 2020. We estimated the prevalence of good KAP toward COVID-19 prevention measures. We did T-test or ANOVA to investigate the mean differences in KAP between socio-demographic groups. In addition, we did multivariable logistic regression analysis to investigate the socio-demographic determinants of good KAP.Results: Of the total 250 participants, 60% were males, 64% were aged between 20 and 25 years, and 90% was Saudi. 24% interns are relying on social media, newspaper, television or friends as primary source of COVID-19 information, while others are relying on formal sources like official websites of national and international bodies. Overall, the prevalence of good knowledge, attitude and practices are 38% (95% CI: 32.2-44.2), 55.2% (48.9-61.3) and 24% (19.1-29.7), respectively. Graduating from government universities are associated with higher odds of good knowledge (aOR: 3.87; 95% CI: 1.05-14.22) and positive attitude (aOR: 4.84; 95% CI: 1.28-18.23) than private or foreign universities. While, practicing in the west region-Mecca and Medina (aOR: 2.35; 95% CI: 1.05-5.23); and the North region-Hail, Jouf, Tabuk & Northern borders (aOR: 3.2; 95% CI: 1.32-7.75) are associated to higher odds of moderate/good practice compared to practicing in the central region- Riyadh and Qassim. Conclusions: Our findings reveal gaps in KAP among medical interns. Medical interns in Saudi Arabia are not deployed as front-line health worker to combat COVID-19. However, community transmission of COVID-19 make it critical to improve KAP of medical interns toward COVID-19 prevention measures. Repeated training to improve KAP and competency of the medical interns in this regard are warranted.

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“…Our results predict that Sweden's healthcare capacity (both for COVID-19 patients and for others) will be rapidly overwhelmed under the current strategy, both through the need to care for COVID-19 patients and because healthcare workers will themselves become ill and unable to work. [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] Intensive care capacity is projected to become a particular bottleneck, as shown in other countries. [50][51][52] For Sweden, this is in particular worrisome considering the relatively low availability of beds prior to the pandemic compared to other European countries 22 24 and recent reports challenging Swedish disaster preparedness.…”

Section: Meaning Of the Study: Possible Explanations And Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intervention strategies against COVID-19 and their estimated impact on Swedish healthcare capacity

Wijngaart

Gardner

Willem

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Objectives: During March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread globally, and non-pharmaceutical interventions are being used to reduce both the load on the healthcare system as well as overall mortality. Design: Individual-based transmission modelling using Swedish demographic and Geographical Information System data and conservative COVID-19 epidemiological parameters. Setting: Sweden Participants: A model to simulate all 10.09 million Swedish residents. Interventions: 5 different non-pharmaceutical public-health interventions including the mitigation strategy of the Swedish government as of 10 April; isolation of the entire household of confirmed cases; closure of schools and non-essential businesses with or without strict social distancing; and strict social distancing with closure of schools and non-essential businesses. Main outcome measures: Estimated acute care and intensive care hospitalisations, COVID-19 attributable deaths, and infections among healthcare workers from 10 April until 29 June. Findings: Our model for Sweden shows that, under conservative epidemiological parameter estimates, the current Swedish public-health strategy will result in a peak intensive-care load in May that exceeds pre-pandemic capacity by over 40-fold, with a median mortality of 96,000 (95% CI 52,000 to 183,000). The most stringent public-health measures examined are predicted to reduce mortality by approximately three-fold. Intensive-care load at the peak could be reduced by over two-fold with a shorter period at peak pandemic capacity. Conclusions: Our results predict that, under conservative epidemiological parameter estimates, current measures in Sweden will result in at least 40-fold over-subscription of pre-pandemic Swedish intensive care capacity, with 15.8 percent of Swedish healthcare workers unable to work at the pandemic peak. Modifications to ICU admission criteria from international norms would further increase mortality.

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The COVID-19 pandemic: major risks to healthcare and other workers on the front line

Cited by 290 publications

References 8 publications

Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health?

Working from home in the time of COVID-19: how to best preserve occupational health?

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Medical Interns Toward COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey, April-May 2020

Intervention strategies against COVID-19 and their estimated impact on Swedish healthcare capacity

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