Potential Risk Factors for COVID-19 Infection among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Centre, Kerala, India

Abstract

Introduction: Understanding the virus transmission patterns and routes of transmission among Healthcare Workers (HCWs) is limiting the amplification events in health care facilities. Aim: To estimate the secondary infection rate and to describe the clinical presentation of infection and the risk factors for infection among healthcare worker contacts of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2020 to July 2021, at a tertiary care centre, in central Kerala, India, among all the healthcare workers with exposure to a COVID-19 confirmed cases within the institution, between 15 July 2020 to 15 August 2020. Data including demographic details, information on contact and possible exposure with the COVID-19 infected patient was obtained using a questionnaire adapted from the World Health Organisation (WHO) questionnaire. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel and analysed using International Business Machines (IBM) Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Results: A total of 433 healthcare workers (382 females and 51 males, mean age: 34.33±10.79 years) were found to be exposed to COVID-19 confirmed cases in the institution. The 21.1% of the healthcare worker contacts were exposed while working in non-COVID Intensive Care Unit (ICU) setting. Out of the 433 HCWs who were exposed to COVID-19 patients, 9 tested positive for COVID-19 (secondary infection rate was 2.07% with a Confidence Interval (CI) of 0.7-3.4%). All 9 of the positive HCWs were females, of which 88.89% were symptomatic. Conclusion: Healthcare workers are at risk of transmission of COVID-19 while providing care, hence further explorative studies, including serologic studies are recommended to further understand the epidemiology.