COVID-19 AS AN OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE - INTERIM REPORT FROM THE CZECH NATIONAL REGISTRY OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES AS OF MARCH 31, 2021
Abstract
The article provides an interim analysis of cases of COVID-19 reported as an occupational disease to the National Registry of Occupational Diseases in 2020 and in the lst quarter of 2021. There were 370 cases, of which 285 are women representing 77% and 85 men representing 23%.
The age range was from 18 to 70 years. The average age was 43 years.
Alt the diseases occurred in 2020, mostly in the first wave of the epidemie. Because the average time between illness and the čase reporting was 170 days, it can be expected that many cases are still under assessment.
Most cases come from the Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc and Hradec Králové regions. Virtually all of these patients were infected during various health care or sociál work activities.
They were mostly nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals. ít is just tip of the iceberg. According to the Czech Medical Chamber, over 55 000 health professionals háve contracted COVID-19 since the beginning of the epidemie until January 10, 2021.
It is therefore essential that the first contact physicians thought about the possibility of the occupational origin of COVID-19, sufficiently informed their patients and referred them to the relevant occupational disease centers. Physicians should also initiate compensation for the families of workers who died of COVID-19.