Coronavirus infections among health care workers proportionally the same as among other working-age people in 2020

A total of 36,650 coronavirus infections were diagnosed in Finland last year. Of the infected, 30,424 were working-age patients and 2,601 were health care workers. That means health care workers accounted for 8.5 % of all cases of working-age people infected with coronavirus in 2020.

According to the statistics from 2019, some 7.4 % of all working-age people worked in health services.

Out of the social welfare and health care workers infected with coronavirus

• the source of infection remained unknown in 37 % of the cases
• the person’s workplace was the source of infection in 30 % of the cases
• the source of infection was another known close contact, such as a family member or a contact in leisure activities, in 33 % of the cases.

‘It may be difficult for health care workers, like many other professional groups, to avoid contacts because their work cannot be done remotely. It is, therefore, possible for them to get infected both on the way to work, in break rooms and in customer situations if hygiene measures are not sufficient,’ says Tuula Hannila-Handelberg, Chief Physician at THL.

In 2020, 5 % of health care workers infected with coronavirus needed hospital treatment and 18 % ended up in intensive care. No cases where persons working in health care have died of COVID-19 have been reported to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare's National Infectious Diseases Register.

Many infections in spring and few infections in summer

Of the infections in spring reported by 8 June, 5,599 people infected were of working age and 949 of them were health care workers. The share of health care workers in all working-age people diagnosed with coronavirus was, therefore, higher – around 17 %.

During the summer, between 9 June and 31 August 2020, 1,027 coronavirus infections were diagnosed in Finland. Of the infected, 883 were working-age patients and 47 were health care workers. Thus, health care workers accounted for approximately 5.3 % of all cases of coronavirus diagnosed during the summer. 

‘In the spring of last year, the need for hospital care was high, and it took some time to get used to the protective measures against infection. At the same time, in addition to risk groups, coronavirus testing was targeted at health care personnel, which partly explains their large share of infections last spring. There were few infections throughout the summer, and there was less need for hospital treatment,’ Hannila-Handelberg says.

Equal rates of infection among men and women

Women accounted for 82 % and men 18 % of all infections among health care workers last year, corresponding to the gender distribution of health care workers according to statistics. 

The median age of health care workers infected with coronavirus was 40 years.

Further information:

News piece on infections among health care personnel from last autumn (22 September 2020, in Finnish)

Press release on infections among health care personnel from last spring (8 June 2020, in Finnish)

Tuula Hannila-Handelberg
Chief Physician
THL
[email protected]