Work-related COVID-19 transmission in six Asian countries/areas: A follow-up study
Work-related COVID-19 transmission in six Asian countries/areas: A follow-up study
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0233588
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发表时间：
2020-05-19
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Kales, Stefanos N.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lan, Fan-Yun;Wei, Chih-Fu;Kales, Stefanos N.
目的在新冠肺炎大流行中，与工作相关的传播证据有限。我们旨在确定2019年早期冠状病毒病（COVID-19）本地传播的高危职业。方法在本观察性研究中，我们从香港、日本、新加坡、台湾、泰国和越南的政府调查报告中提取COVID-19确诊病例。在出现首例本地传播病例后，我们对每个国家/地区进行了40天的跟踪，并排除了所有输入病例。我们将可能与工作相关的病例定义为：有证据表明因工作而与另一确诊病例密切接触的工人，或有未知的接触史但可能在工作环境中被感染的工人（例如机场出租车司机）。我们计算了每个职业的病例数，并说明了所有可能与工作相关的病例和卫生保健工作者（HCW）病例的时间分布。时间分布进一步确定为早期暴发（下一时期最早10天）和晚期暴发（下一时期第11天至第40天）。结果在690例本地传播病例中，共发现103例疑似工作相关病例（14.9%）。病例最多的五个职业群体是卫生保健工作者（HCWs）（22%）、司机和运输工人（18%）、服务和销售工人（18%）、清洁和家政工人（9%）以及公共安全工人（7%）。可能的工作传播在早期暴发中发挥了重要作用（占早期病例的47.7%）。有风险的职业从早期爆发（主要是服务和销售人员、司机、建筑工人和宗教专业人员）到晚期爆发（主要是医护人员、司机、清洁和家政工人、警察和宗教专业人员）各不相同。结论在COVID-19早期疫情中，工作传播是相当重要的，感染风险的增加不仅限于HCW。有必要对高危工作人群实施预防/监测战略。
ObjectiveThere is limited evidence of work-related transmission in the emerging coronaviral pandemic. We aimed to identify high-risk occupations for early coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) local transmission.MethodsIn this observational study, we extracted confirmed COVID-19 cases from governmental investigation reports in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. We followed each country/area for 40 days after its first locally transmitted case, and excluded all imported cases. We defined a possible work-related case as a worker with evidence of close contact with another confirmed case due to work, or an unknown contact history but likely to be infected in the working environment (e.g. an airport taxi driver). We calculated the case number for each occupation, and illustrated the temporal distribution of all possible work-related cases and healthcare worker (HCW) cases. The temporal distribution was further defined as early outbreak (the earliest 10 days of the following period) and late outbreak (11th to 40th days of the following period).ResultsWe identified 103 possible work-related cases (14.9%) among a total of 690 local transmissions. The five occupation groups with the most cases were healthcare workers (HCWs) (22%), drivers and transport workers (18%), services and sales workers (18%), cleaning and domestic workers (9%) and public safety workers (7%). Possible work-related transmission played a substantial role in early outbreak (47.7% of early cases). Occupations at risk varied from early outbreak (predominantly services and sales workers, drivers, construction laborers, and religious professionals) to late outbreak (predominantly HCWs, drivers, cleaning and domestic workers, police officers, and religious professionals).ConclusionsWork-related transmission is considerable in early COVID-19 outbreaks, and the elevated risk of infection was not limited to HCW. Implementing preventive/surveillance strategies for high-risk working populations is warranted.