Covid-19 risk for frontline healthcare workers ‘three-fold greater’

FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE workers with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) have a three-fold increased risk of testing positive for coronavirus, compared to the general population, a study has found.

The research also indicates that those with inadequate PPE had a further increased in risk.

According to the data, healthcare workers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were more likely to test positive. Researchers say their findings highlight the importance of adequate availability and use of PPE, but also the need for additional strategies. These include ensuring correct application and removal of PPE and avoiding reuse, which was associated with increased risk.

Using the Covid Symptom Tracker App, researchers from

King’s College London and Harvard studied data from 2,035,395 individuals and 99,795 frontline healthcare staff in the UK and US.

They found that the prevalence of Sars-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19, was 2,747 cases per 100,000 frontline healthcare workers compared with 242 cases per 100,000 people in the general community.

Around 20 per cent of frontline healthcare workers had reported at least one of the symptoms that are associated with the virus, compared with 14.4 per cent of the general population. Fatigue, loss of smell or taste, and hoarse voice were especially frequent, the study published in Lancet Public Health found.

Researchers say BAME healthcare workers were at an especially high risk of infection, with at least a five-fold increased risk, compared with the non-Hispanic white general community.