Caution Still Needed When Wearing PPE

Cleaning professionals working in hospitals and nursing homes with people being treated for COVID-19 should take care to stay away from these sick patients, even while wearing personal protective equipment. A new study published in the journal Lancet Public Health found that wearing PPE isn’t enough to completely protect frontline workers, CNN reports.

Researchers from King’s College London found that health care workers with adequate gloves, gowns, and face masks still had 2.3 times the risk of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared to the general public. Minority frontline workers had an even greater risk of testing positive for the coronavirus with Black, Hispanic, and other minority care providers five times more likely to contract COVID-19 than their white co-workers.

The researchers used the COVID Symptom Tracker app to study the data of more than 2 million people, including almost 100,000 frontline health care workers in the United States and the United Kingdom between March 24 and April 23. They found more than 2,700 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 health care workers compared with just over 240 cases per 100,000 among the general population.

More than 20% of frontline workers reported at least one symptom associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection— fatigue, loss of smell or taste, and hoarse voice—compared with 14.4% of the general population.

“The data is clear in revealing that there is still an elevated risk of SARS-Co-V-2 infection despite availability of PPE,” said King’s College London professor and senior study author Sebastien Ourselin.

Although it is not failproof, health and safety experts highly recommend wearing PPE. Learn tips that will make your PPE work more effectively.