ESTIMATING COVID-19 INFECTIONS IN HOSPITAL WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

Junaid A Razzak; Junaid Ahmad Bhatti; Muhammad Ramzan Tahir; Omrana Pasha-Razzak

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.06.20055988 doi: medRxiv preprint of COVID-19 infection amongst hospital-based workers is directly proportional to the number of patients in the healthcare system. 5, 9, 10 This relationship is modulated by other factors, including adequate supply and optimal usage of PPE. 4, 6, 8, 10 The shortage of PPE has created circumstances where its use is prioritized for hospital workers that are highly exposed to COVID-19 patients, such as intensive care or emergency care workers. 9, 11, 12 Illness outcomes, including mortality, are further influenced by the characteristics of the hospital worker population, including age structure and prevalence of other risk factors, such as occurrence of comorbid conditions, which could have a direct impact on risk of disease severity and number of deaths. 1, 5, [13] [14] [15] We estimated the number of hospital workers in the US at risk of contracting the infection or dying due to COVID-19. We estimated COVID-19-related counts for infections and deaths if perfect PPE conditions are available to high risk hospital workers. We also evaluated the impact of curtailing hospital-based direct patient care in workers above a certain age on estimated counts for infections and deaths.