Are Healthcare Workers Infected with SARS-CoV-2 at Home or at Work? A Comparative Prevalence Study

Shadi Zahran, Ran Nir-Paz, Ora Paltiel, Chen Stein-Zamir and Yonatan Oster ()
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Shadi Zahran: Department of Internal Medicine, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem 9112001, Israel
Ran Nir-Paz: Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Ora Paltiel: Faculty of Medicine, Braun School of Public and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Chen Stein-Zamir: Faculty of Medicine, Braun School of Public and Community Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
Yonatan Oster: Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: Prior to the widespread use of vaccinations, healthcare workers (HCWs) faced the double burden of caring for unprecedented numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients while also facing the risk of becoming infected themselves either in healthcare facilities or at home. In order to assess whether SARS-CoV-2-positivity rates in HCWs reflected or differed from those in their residential areas, we compared the SARS-CoV-2-positivity rates during 2020 among HCWs in Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centers (HHUMC), a tertiary medical center in Jerusalem, Israel, to those of the general population in Jerusalem, stratified by neighborhood. Additionally, we compared the demographic and professional parameters in every group. Four percent of the adult population (>18 years) in Jerusalem tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during 2020 (24,529/605,426) compared to 7.1% of HHUMC HCWs (317/4470), rate ratio 1.75 (95% CI 1.57–1.95), with wide variability (range 0.38–25.0) among different neighborhoods. Of the 30 neighborhoods with more than 50 infected HCWs, 25 showed a higher positivity rate for HCWs compared to the general population. The higher risk of HCWs compared to residents representing the general population in most neighborhoods in Jerusalem may be explained by their behavior in and out of the hospital.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; healthcare workers; neighborhood; location; occupational risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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