Prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in HCWs at an academic medical center

Editor's Note

This study of healthcare workers (HCWs) at the University of Kentucky Healthcare in Lexington finds a low and similar antibody positivity rate between HCWs and patients.

Of 322 HCWs, 5 were antibody positive for an overall rate of 1.55%.

The antibody positivity rate of COVID-19 infected patients at the same time was 1.8%.

There were no differences in antibody positivity between those who worked directly with COVID-19 infected patients and those who did not.

HCW positivity rates did not appear to be impacted by caring for COVID-19 infected patients, which suggests that appropriate use of PPE is effective in protecting HCWs from transmission, the researchers say.