Abstract
IntroductionCOVID-19 transmission was significant amongst Qatar’s working population during the March–July 2020 outbreak. The study aimed to estimate the risk of exposure for COVID-19 across various workplace settings and demographics in the State of Qatar.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing surveillance data of all workplaces with 10 or more laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19. These workplaces were categorized using a mapping table adapted from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, 2017 version. The data was then analyzed to estimate and compare the positivity rate as an indicator of the risk of developing COVID-19 infection across various workplace settings in the State of Qatar.ResultsThe highest positivity rate was reported amongst the Construction & Related (40.0%) and the Retail & Wholesale Trade sectors (40.0%), whereas, the lowest positivity rate was attributed to the healthcare workplace setting (11.0%). The highest incidence of COVID-19 infections occurred in South Asian nationalities and in the male gender. The private funded sector employees have seen higher positivity rate than employees of the governmental funded sector.ConclusionThe elevated risk of infection in Construction and Retail & Wholesale Trade is probably due to environmental and educational vulnerabilities. The predominant labor force of those workplace categories is South Asian craft and male manual workers. Alternatively, the better containment of the healthcare workplace setting can be attributed to the enforcement of infection control and occupational safety measures. These findings imply the importance of using preventive and surveillance strategies for high-risk workplace settings appropriately.
Highlights
COVID-19 transmission was significant amongst Qatar’s working population during the March–July 2020 outbreak
The current COVID-19 outbreak that emerged in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China [1], represents one of the most challenging public health threats globally faced
The initial stage of the epidemic in the State of Qatar started on February 29th, 2020, with a COVID-19 positive citizen case traveling back from Iran who had directly been isolated upon his arrival
Summary
COVID-19 transmission was significant amongst Qatar’s working population during the March–July 2020 outbreak. The second week of July 2020 had seen more than 13 million confirmed cases across 215 countries [3]. The initial stage of the epidemic in the State of Qatar started on February 29th, 2020, with a COVID-19 positive citizen case traveling back from Iran who had directly been isolated upon his arrival. On March 11th, the state of Qatar witnessed a sudden surge of 226 locally transmitted new cases in 1 day, which entails an outbreak with localized transmission, where sporadic infections with the pathogen occur. On May 22nd, the Ministry of Public Health declared that the State of Qatar had entered the peak phase of the pandemic represented by a widespread human infection. By the second week of July, Qatar had recorded more than 109,000 confirmed COVID-19 patients for a total of 2.7 million inhabitants [4]
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