US healthcare workers at highest COVID-19 risk in workplace: study

NEW YORK - US healthcare workers were most likely to be infected with COVID-19 at work during the pandemic's first year, US News and World Report reported on Monday citing a new study that challenges previous research suggesting their risk was highest off the job.

Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 was more likely in the workplace (52 percent) than in the home (nearly 31 percent) or community (about 26 percent). Workplace-associated exposures peaked in April 2020 at 84 percent, the researchers found in their study.

About two-thirds of healthcare workers who reported a specific type of on-the-job exposure said they'd come into contact with patients or other healthcare workers who had COVID-19, according to the study.

The largest reductions in workplace exposures occurred in June 2020 after introduction of improved infection prevention and control measures, and in December 2020, after launch of the nationwide COVID-19 healthcare worker vaccination program, it noted.

"This study provides important insights to guide infection prevention and control practices in healthcare settings so that we can better protect HCPs (health care professionals) and their patients," said Linda Dickey, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, which published the findings in its journal.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on nearly 84,000 healthcare workers who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, and whose source of exposure was known.