The Health Department has asked health-care workers (HCWs) to be more mindful of their social interactions within the hospital as well as during off-duty hours and to give more focus on physical distancing and other universal safety precautions to prevent themselves from getting infected by SARS-CoV-2.

In its second volume exploring the extent of COVID-19 positivity amongst health-care workers, the Health Department says that the positivity among the HCWs is mostly owing to the manner of social interactions as well as other gaps in safety, rather than a breach in personal protective equipment (PPE).

The report in effect states that while wearing PPE protects HCWs from getting infected during their duty hours, it is the carelessness in interactions and congregations outside duty hours that are probably resulting in the HCWs contracting COVID-19.

Individual hospitals should bring more focus on ensuring that all safety norms, including physical distancing, frequent handwashing, and mask wearing, are followed by HCWs, it says.

The new report documents the details of HCWs who contracted COVID-19 in July.

Lack of PPEs

In the first volume on HCWs getting infected, the Health Department had reported that 14% of health workers had given the history of absence of adequate PPEs while at work, lack of PPEs, and reuse of PPEs.

The Health Department says that 441 HCWs — including 98 (22%) doctors, 148 (33%) staff nurses, 85 (19%) Nursing Assistants/Hospital Attenders, 20 (5%) field staff, 17 (4%) ASHAs, 46 (10%) paramedical staff, and 28 (6%) office staff/support staff — contracted COVID-19 during the month till July 31.

Of the HCWs who contracted COVID-19, 301 (68%) were involved in direct patient care, 103 (23%) were support staff, and 37 (9%) were field staff.

Thiruvananthapuram district had the most number of HCWs affected (30%), followed by Kannur (21%) and Kozhikode (12%). Among the affected , 24.5% of doctors and 44.6% of the nurses were from the private sector.

It was the sentinel surveillance that picked up 24 (5.4%) of the HCWs infected. The report says that 54 (34.9%) of HCWs were symptomatic at the time of diagnosis while 127 (28%) were asymptomatic.