Abstract
Certain professional categories are at a high occupational exposure to COVID-19. The aim of this survey was to quantify the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among police officers in Italy and identify its correlates. In this cross-sectional study, a nationally representative sample of State police employees was tested for IgG and IgM before the start of the National vaccination campaign. A total of 10,535 subjects (approximately 10% of the total workforce) participated in the study. The overall seroprevalence was 4.8% (95% CI: 4.4–5.3%). However, seropositivity was unevenly distributed across the country with a clear (p < 0.001) North–South gradient. In particular, the seroprevalence was 5.6 times higher in northern regions than in southern regions (9.0% vs. 1.6%). Most (71.2%) seropositive subjects reported having no recent symptoms potentially attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Previous dysosmia, dysgeusia, and influenza-like illness symptoms were positive predictors of being seropositive. However, the prognostic value of dysosmia depended (p < 0.05) on both sex and prior influenza-like illness. The baseline seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in police employees is considerable. A significant risk of occupational exposure, frequent asymptomatic cases and the progressive waning of neutralizing antibodies suggest that the police workers should be considered among the job categories prioritized for the booster COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Highlights
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a devasting public health and socioeconomic crisis worldwide
The objective of this study was to quantify the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in a representative and large sample of State police officers (SPOs) in Italy, and to identify some correlates of seropositivity, which would be useful for establishing future preventive measures, including an eventual booster COVID-19 vaccine dose
influenza-like illness (ILI) was reported by 4.5% of police employees, while symptoms of dysosmia or dysgeusia were reported by around 1% of the participants (Table 1)
Summary
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to a devasting public health and socioeconomic crisis worldwide. The attack rate and burden of disease indicators are unevenly distributed among different population strata and depend on a variety of characteristics including age, geographic area, risk of exposure, vaccination coverage, etc. The officially reported burden indicators are, significantly underestimated since a high number of cases are not detected and are underreported due to limited testing capacities [5]. The issue of disease underreporting may be at least partially addressed through well-designed seroepidemiological surveys that are able to quantify the susceptible population fraction and can inform disease modelling, forecasting, and optimize vaccination and other public health measures [6]. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis [1] has estimated that the true prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be up to 11 times higher than the officially reported statistics.
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