Risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among healthcare workers working in a Large Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

OBJECTIVES To estimate COVID-19 infection and outcomes among healthcare workers (HCWs) compared with non-HCWs. METHODS A prospective surveillance study was conducted among HCWs and non-HCWs eligible for treatment at a large tertiary care facility in Riyadh between March 1st to November 30th, 2020. RESULTS A total 13,219 cases with confirmed COVID-19 have been detected during the study; 1596 (12.1%) HCW patients (HCWPs) and 11623 (87.9%) non-HCWPs. Infection per 100 population was almost ten-fold higher in HCWs compared with non-HCWs (9.78 versus 1.01, p<0.001). The risk of infection in support staff (15.1%) was almost double the risk in other professional groups (p<0.001). Hospitalization (14.1% versus 1.8%, p<0.001), ICU admission (3.0% versus 0.5%, p<0.001), and case fatality (0.13% versus 2.77%, p<0.001) were significantly lower in HCWPs compared with non-HCWPs. The mortality per 100,000 population was significantly lower in HCWs compared with non-HCWs (12.3 and 28.1, p<0.001). CONCLUSION HCWs are at ten-fold higher risk of COVID-19 infection but have much better outcomes compared with non-HCWs. More strict infection controls measures are still required to protect HCWs, including those who are not involved in direct patient care.

Clustering of Covid-19 infections among healthcare workers: Experience from a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia

“…Similar to our findings, Al Maskari et al 13 , Mani et al 14 , and Wong et al 15 reported no mortality in their cohorts of 204, 185 and 88 infected HCWs with average ages of 36, 40 and 35 years, respectively. An additional study from Saudi Arabia showed a very low mortality rate of 0.1% among HCWs 12 . On the other hand, more severe outcomes were described in large cohorts of infected HCWs; the CDC COVID-19 working group 16 in their study of 9282 infected HCWs, reported higher hospitalization (9.7%), ICU admissions (4.9%) and mortality rates (0.6%) among all age groups included in the study.…”

“…The latter deserves careful planning and mitigation strategies to prevent the loss of the essential HCW forces during pandemics. Several studies from Saudi Arabia reported the increased frequency of COVID-19 among non-Saudi HCWs with coworkers being a common source of spread of infection especially in the setting of hospital-provided accommodations 10 , 11 , 12 . This finding is probably unique to countries with large numbers of expatriate populations working in healthcare settings and surely creates challenges for infection prevention in these settings.…”

Leadership and resilience in adversity: The impact of COVID-19 on radiography researchers and ways forward

“…An increase in physical and verbal violence towards them has also been reported 8 . It has been estimated that healthcare workers have a ten-fold increased risk of being infected by SARS-CoV-2 9 , and this has been sadly confirmed by the large number (at least 115,000 people) of fatalities within the workforce worldwide 10 .…”

Prognosis of COVID-19 in the middle eastern population, knowns and unknowns

“…In addition, the healthcare workforce in KSA relies mainly on the nursing-related occupation that have more frequent contact and longer exposure time with patients ( Barry et al, 2021 ). In this country, hospital and community settings played both the role of an infection source for HCW ( Barry et al, 2020 ; Alshamrani et al, 2021 ). Healthcare-associated infections include exposure to a positive COVID-19 patient as well as exposure to other infected HCW ( Al Bujayr et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Interestingly, Alshamrani et al conducted a study where they compared the clinical outcomes of infected HCW and non-HCW. They found that the higher risk of ICU admission and hospitalization increases three and two times, respectively in non-HCW compared to HCW ( Alshamrani et al, 2021 ). This could be attributed to the lower comorbidities, younger age, and better awareness of the healthcare personnel ( Alshamrani et al, 2021 ; Gholami et al, 2021 ).…”