Assessing risk for healthcare workers during the covid-19 pandemic
Kamlesh Khunti, Amanda Griffiths, Azeem Majeed, Chaand Nagpaul, Mala Rao
Abstract
### What you need to know Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a new strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). In March 2020, the World Health Organization classified covid-19 as an international pandemic. Initial guidance from many organisations identified people who might be more vulnerable to covid-19, based on knowledge of those known to be most susceptible to adverse outcomes from the influenza virus. Health conditions divided individuals into those who are “extremely vulnerable,” for whom shielding is required, and those at “increased risk of severe illness.” Studies of hospital admissions and mortality have subsequently enabled identification of more specific risk factors. They include age, sex, and underlying health conditions, the most important of which are diabetes, hypertensive disease, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.1 Concerns have also been raised in the UK and the US about ethnicity as a risk factor, because of the disproportionately higher rates of covid-19 infection and deaths in ethnic minority populations compared with white populations.2 In the UK’s NHS, 21% of staff are from ethnic minority backgrounds, but non-white ethnicities accounted for 75.8% of deaths.3 In the US, Black people account for more than 20% of covid-19 cases among health professionals despite only 5% of doctors and 10% of nurses in the US being from this group.45 The extent to which covid-19 mortality is …