With more and more HCWs testing positive for Covid-19, we need to have a relook into various guidelines regarding continuous number of days a HCW can be posted in a Covid care area and also whether they should be given mandatory quarantine and testing after finishing their duty. Also what should be maximum number of days of continuous duty and maximum number of hours per day of duty in Covid care area should be put in the roster for each HCW?
I agree that there should be a transition guideline for HCW's assigned in COVID-19 facilities. Symptoms appear within 10-14 days from exposure so if we have to quarantine HCW's then it has to be at least 10 days from their last duty. As far as I know there is no study yet on the risk percentage on the length of exposure by HCW's. I would suggest that there should be a routine check on HCW's before transitioning to a non-COVID facility and should self-quarantine until the results.
I agree with transition guidelines for HCWs moving out of a healthcare facility with active COVID-19 cases. However, most of the hospitals have low threshold to let in a HCW to resume duty if he/she has been working in a healthcare facility with active COVID-19 cases.
On slight suspicion such HCWs are being automatically screened by RT-PCR testing of a nasopharyngeal sample.
in Iraq after each week of continuous work in the COVID-19 ward, we have 2 weeks of isolation
