COVID‐19 prevalence among health‐care workers of Gastroenterology department: An audit from a tertiary‐care hospital in India

BACKGROUND AND AIM: In the present coronavirus disease‐19 (COVID‐19) era, health‐care workers (HCWs) warrant special attention because of their higher risk and potential to transmit the disease. Gastroenterology services include emergency and critical care along with the endoscopy procedures, which have aerosol‐generating potential. This study was aimed at auditing the COVID‐19 impact on HCWs working in the Gastroenterology department of our hospital. METHODS: The COVID‐19 status of 117 HCWs was collected using either polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or Immunoglobulin G (IgG) seroassay. COVID‐19 positivity was correlated with demographic characteristics, job profile, area of work, and medical history. RESULTS: Thirty‐eight HCWs (32.48%) showed evidence of COVID‐19 using PCR (23.93%) or only IgG assay (8.55%). Endoscopy technicians (68.75%) exhibited significantly higher (P = 0.003) COVID‐19 incidence compared to doctors (20.69%). Those working in the critical care units exhibited a trend toward higher COVID‐19 incidence (42.86%). None of the six HCWs who received adequate hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis developed evidence of COVID‐19. All the HCWs with COVID‐19 disease recovered. However, there was a considerable loss of “man‐days.” CONCLUSIONS: In our setting, we observed a high COVID‐19 risk for HCWs working in the Gastroenterology department, with the highest risk among the endoscopy technicians. A more stringent triaging and pretesting of patients, as well as HCWs, might decrease the risk of COVID‐19. Further multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the risk and related parameters.