COVID-19 in healthcare workers in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil: clinical and sociodemographic characteristics associated with death and hospitalization

OBJECTIVE: To analyze clinical and sociodemographic characteristics associated with death and hospitalization of healthcare workers due to COVID-19, in addition to calculating the incidence rates per profession. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study using secondary open data from the State Health Department of Espírito Santo (ES), Brazil. The cases of COVID-19 in healthcare workers were recorded between February 27 and August 17, 2020, in Espírito Santo, excluding cases with missing information. RESULTS: Of the confirmed cases, 75.6% (n=9,191) were female. The overall case fatality rate was 0.27% and the general hospitalization rate was 0.99%. The clinical outcome of death and the occurrence of hospitalization were associated with male sex, age ≥50 years, higher education, fever, difficulty breathing, cough, cardiac comorbidity, diabetes and obesity (p<0.05). Only the occurrence of hospitalization was associated with case reported in the metropolitan region of Vitória, runny nose, sore throat, headache and renal comorbidity (p<0.05). The profession with the highest incidence rate was nurse (16,053.2 cases/100,000 nurses). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated high frequency of cases among women, low overall case fatality rate, and high incidence in nurses.