Abstract

Objective: A 6-month longitudinal surveillance study of asymptomatic healthcare providers (HCP) was carried out at a large urban academic medical center in the United States to assess whether their job occupation with higher exposure risks to SARS-CoV-2 would equate with higher risk of contracting COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic before COVID-19 vaccines were available.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort study design was used to collect and analyze immunological and virological monitoring data and self-report survey assessments of personal protective equipment (PPE) availability, adherence to infection control guidelines, and time spent on COVID-19 wards.

Results: Among 289 eligible participants, SARS-CoV-2 exposure risk was high with 48–69% participants working in COVID-19 units and more than 30% of them caring for COVID-19 patients. However, the seroconversion rate was low with only 2.1% of participants developing humoral or cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2.

Conclusion: Our study findings suggest that, for this HCP cohort working at a large urban academic medical center, a low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection could be maintained under conditions of strict infection prevention protocols and reliable PPE availability.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Notes/Citation Information

© The Author(s) 2023

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1177/10998004231161632

Funding Information

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by COVID-19 Basic, Translational and Clinical Research Fund from UC Irvine Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and UL1TR001414–06 (NIH/NCATS).

Download

Share

COinS