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. 2022 Jun 17;17(6):e0268998.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268998. eCollection 2022.

COVID-19 cases among medical laboratory services staff in South Africa, 2020-2021: A cohort study

Kerry Sidwell Wilson  1   2 , Vusi Ntlebi  1 , Felix Made  1 , Natasha Sanabria  3 , Melissa Vetten  3 , Jitcy Joseph  3 , Graham Chin  4 , David Jones  4 , Nonhlanhla Tlotleng  1
Affiliations

COVID-19 cases among medical laboratory services staff in South Africa, 2020-2021: A cohort study

Kerry Sidwell Wilson et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Medical laboratory workers may have an increased risk of COVID-19 due to their interaction with biological samples received for testing and contamination of documents. Records of COVID-19 laboratory-confirmed positive cases within the medical laboratory service were routinely collected in the company's Occupational Health and Safety Information System (OHASIS). Surveillance data from the OHASIS system were extracted from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. An epidemic curve was plotted and compared to that for the country, along with prevalence proportions and incidence rates. The odds of COVID-19 infection were categorised by job and compared to the US Occupational Risk Scores. A logistic regression model assessed the risk of COVID-19 infection per occupational group. A total of 2091 (26% of staff) COVID-19 positive cases were reported. The number of COVID-19 cases was higher in the first wave at 46% (967/2091) of cases, than in the second wave 40% (846/2091) of cases. There was no significant difference in COVID-19 prevalence between male and female employees. The job categories with the most increased risk were laboratory managers [AOR 3.2 (95%CI 1.9-5.1)] and laboratory support clerks [AOR 3.2 (95%CI 1.9-5.2)]. Our study confirms that some categories of medical laboratory staff are at increased risk for COVID-19; this is a complex interaction between workplace risk factors, community interaction, socioeconomic status, personal habits, and behaviour. Targeted interventions are recommended for high-risk groups. OHASIS has the potential to generate data for surveillance of health care workers and contribute towards a South African risk profile.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: One author is involved in establishing the information system used here to provide the data in the local government health departments. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. An epidemic curve of the incidence of COVID-19 cases within medical laboratory services staff compared to the general South African population.
Weekly incidence rates of PCR confirmed cases of SARS CoV-2 by epidemic week for the South African population (green shading, right axis), medical laboratory services staff (red line, left axis), Gauteng province population (green line, right axis), and the Western Cape province population (blue line, right axis). 1 April 2020–31 March 2021.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Monthly number and proportion of infections and incidence rates among the medical laboratory services staff by sex, 1 April 2020–31 March 2021.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Proportion of COVID-19 positive cases among medical laboratory services staff by province, 1 April 2020–31 March 2021. (chi-square p< 0.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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