Recent studies suggest workplace transmission of SARS-CoV-2 "likely played a substantial role" in the local spread of the virus. Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health examined coronavirus transmissions in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam over a 40-day period. They estimate 47% of COVID-19 cases early in the outbreak were linked to workplaces, with a plurality of cases among workers in the health care sector. A separate study of health care workers in Wuhan, China, found nurses under the age of 45 who cared for patients not known to have COVID-19 were 16 times more likely to become infected than older frontline physicians. The researchers speculate the nurses lacked adequate access to personal protective equipment or knowledge of how to use it properly. (UPI story, 5/21/20)
