More than one-third of healthcare workers hospitalized for COVID-19 were nurses, underscoring the need for continued infection prevention and control practices.
During the early months of the pandemic, nurses and nursing assistants were hit particularly hard, accounting for a large percentage of healthcare workers hospitalized with COVID-19, according to an analysis released by the CDC.
The CDC says it examined 6,760 adult hospitalizations from COVID-19 in 13 states from March to May and found that nearly 6% were healthcare workers.
Of those, 36% were in nursing-related occupations. Nearly 28% of hospitalized healthcare workers were admitted to an intensive care unit, 16% required invasive mechanical ventilation, and 4% died.
Ninety percent of healthcare workers hospitalized had at least underlying condition, according to the analysis.
These conditions included obesity (73%), hypertension (41%), chronic metabolic disease (37%), diabetes (31%), chronic lung disease (27%), and asthma (18%).
The CDC says these findings underline the continued need for infection prevention and control in healthcare settings, such as use of recommended personal protective equipment, hand hygiene, and physical distancing, as well as mitigation efforts in the community to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.