Healthcare workers at Mater Dei Hospital are less likely to contract COVID-19 than people in the community, according to tests carried out four months into the pandemic.

Almost 2,000 Mater Dei staff members undertook a blood test for antibodies to COVID-19 to understand who has been exposed to the virus, Head of Infection Control at Mater Dei, Michael Borg told Times of Malta.

It transpired that only 0.46%, or fewer than five healthcare workers out of every 1,000 had COVID-19 antibodies. There was no difference between those who worked with coronavirus patients and those who did not.

This percentage is slightly less than that found in the community according to similar research carried out, Borg said.

“This means that contrary to what is happening in some other countries, hospital staff is not at a higher risk of contracting the virus than the public,” Borg added.

According to a study by King’s College London, frontline healthcare workers in the US and the UK who wear gloves, gowns and face masks, were 3.4 times more likely of contracting coronavirus, when compared to the general population.

Borg said that at Mater Dei, every healthcare quarantine case could have been avoided had the hospital’s personal protective equipment protocol been followed appropriately.

“Unless healthcare workers have been exposed to the virus outside of the hospital, quarantine is only imposed if there is significant exposure to a positive case, usually around 15 minutes, and the personal protective equipment is not worn appropriately.”

A significant proportion of Mater Dei healthcare workers who were asked to quarantine were asked to do so because they were exposed to the virus outside of the hospital.

Across the world, healthcare workers get the virus either because they do not wear, or, more importantly, do not remove, the PPE correctly.

Most of the positive COVID-19 patients are young. We need to make sure the virus does not spread to the more vulnerable people

“Therefore, erring on the side of caution, we closed off whole wards as we would rather lose a number of healthcare workers for a couple of weeks than risk an outbreak.”

The threshold of action at Mater Dei is very high: there is free access to swabbing for all staff, while symptomatic healthcare workers are asked to not return to work until they receive their tests results.

“Foreign colleagues often question our high number of tests on hospital staff, but I believe that swabbing allows us to map the situation and immediately adapt to the circumstances.”

Borg said every patient is swabbed before admitted into a ward, before every major operation and even before a dental outpatient appointment. Admitted patients wait in a transit area for a few hours until the results are out, and, in some cases, tests are repeated to ensure no false negatives.

Meanwhile, hospital policy requires every staff member to wear a visor or a mask at all times and to maintain good hand hygiene. The worn PPE depends on a risk assessment which looks at whether the patient is negative, positive or waiting a swab result, whether they have COVID-like symptoms and also what kind of procedure they will be undergoing.

Therefore, in some instances staff might need to wear a mask, visor, apron and gloves. In other situations, they might need to also put on a gown, FFP2/3 or KN95 masks.

Asked how the hospital is gearing up for influenza season, Borg said a COVID-19 core group has been meeting twice or three times a week since February.

The contingency plan depends on the number of coronavirus cases.

“Once the Infectious Disease Unit is full, we start caring for patients in wards set up specifically for COVID-19 patients. Apart from increased capacity at the Intensive Treatment Unit, we have several other wards on standby, including two that have been set up where the staff canteen and the medical school library used to be.”

Despite the spike in cases, there are few COVID-19 patients in hospital, and Borg has an explanation for this trend:

“Most of the positive COVID-19 patients are young. We need to make sure the virus does not spread to the more vulnerable people.”