Most COVID-infected healthcare workers were exposed at work early in pandemicIn its first evaluation of COVID-19 exposures among US healthcare professionals (HCPs) over the first year of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that most HCPs were likely infected at work rather than in the community.The study, published yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control, used national surveillance data on 83,775 HCPs with information on where they were likely infected with COVID-19 from Mar 1, 2020, to Mar 31, 2021.The researchers also used separate multivariable regression models to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) for links between community incidence and healthcare, household, and community exposures among 65,650 HCP infections occurring before the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.Through May 2021, at least 500,000 US HCPs tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,653 died.HCPs were most often exposed to SARS-CoV-2 at work (52.0%), followed by exposures at home (30.8%) and in the community (25.6%).
An adjusted analyses showed that HCPs were more likely to have been exposed at work (aPR, 1.31) than at home or in the community (aPR, 0.73) under the highest versus the lowest community incidences.Community COVID-19 incidence followed similar temporal patterns as healthcare exposures, peaking in April, July, and December 2020.
Deaths peaked in April 2020, December 2020, and January 2021. The largest declines in workplace exposures were seen in June 2020, after improved infection prevention and control procedures were implemented.After COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out to HCPs in December 2020, healthcare exposures fell from the most to the least common exposure type.In an Association for