Risk of hospitalization and death for healthcare workers with COVID-19 in nine European countries, January 2020-January 2021

This article presents and compares coronavirus disease 2019 attack rates for infection, hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and death in healthcare workers (HCWs) and non-HCWs in nine European countries from 31st January 2020 to 13th January 2021. Adjusted attack rate ratios in HCWs (compared with non-HCWs) were 3.0 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.2-4.0] for infection, 1.8 (95% CI 1.2-2.7) for hospitalization, 1.9 (95% CI 1.1-3.2) for ICU admission and 0.9 (95% CI 0.4-2.0) for death. Among hospitalized cases, the case-fatality ratio was 1.8% in HCWs and 8.2% in non-HCWs. Differences may be due to better/earlier access to treatment, differential underascertainment and the healthy worker effect. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society.

Automated summary

This article compares the attack rates of COVID-19 in healthcare workers and non-healthcare workers in nine European countries. The findings show that healthcare workers have higher attack rates of infection, hospitalization, and ICU admission compared to non-healthcare workers, but a relatively lower death rate. The differences may be attributed to better access to treatment, early detection of infection, and the healthy worker effect.