Community spread outpaces workplace transmission

While pandemic fatigue may be causing some laxity in adherence to COVID-19 workplace safety measures, a new study has shown that most coronavirus exposure comes from community spread, not the workplace. 

A study of 24,000 workers in four large health care systems between April and August 2020 found the majority of COVID-19 exposures resulted from community spread, according to researchers from Emory University in Atlanta, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Rush University in Chicago and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The researchers analyzed the antibodies of participants in Georgia, Maryland and Illinois and had them complete questionnaires about their occupational activities and possible exposures to coronavirus both inside and outside the workplace. 

They found that health care workers who worked in a COVID-19 unit or with COVID-19 patients did not increase their odds of seropositivity, and that there was no clear association between workplace contact with coronavirus patients and a positive antibody test. 

“We’ve seen similar kinds of anecdotal data,” said Deborah Roy, Falmouth, Maine-based president of SafeTech Consultants Inc. and president-elect of the American Society of Safety Professionals. “(Employers with) good procedures in place, they have had very little transmission, if any. …It makes perfect sense that the positive cases (in the study) were likely coming from the community.”

The study did note that health care workers younger than 30 years of age had higher odds of positive antibody tests compared with older health care workers, but the researchers said that is likely due to the “community-based behaviors of younger people.”

The full study was published March 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.