The safety of anaesthetists and intensivists during the first COVID-19 surge supports extension of use of airborne protection PPE to ward staff

ABSTRACT

A key controversy in the COVID-19 pandemic has been over staff safety in health and social care settings. Anaesthetists and intensivists were anticipated to be at the highest risk of work-related infection due to involvement in airway management and management of critical illness and therefore wear the highest levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the hospital. However, the data clearly show that those working in anaesthesia and critical care settings are at lower risk of infection, harm and death from COVID-19 than colleagues working on the wards. The observed safety of anaesthetists and intensivists and increased risk to those in other patient-facing roles has implications for transmission-based infection control precautions. The precautionary principle supports extending training in and use of airborne precaution PPE to all staff working in patient-facing roles who have close contact with coughing patients. This will both reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19, maintain services and reduce nosocomial transmission to vulnerable patients. The emergence of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with significantly higher transmissibility creates urgency to addressing this matter.