Post-vaccination COVID-19 among Healthcare workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Malaysia

Purpose

To describe the sociodemographic, comorbidities, indication of RT-PCR testing, number of doses of vaccine received, COVID-19 category among the post-vaccination healthcare workers.

Methods & Materials

A retrospective secondary data analysis was conducted at University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), a tertiary referral and teaching hospital with more than 6000 HCWs located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Immunisation Programme at UMMC started on 1^st March 2021, prioritising medical and non-medical frontline staff. All HCWs were included in the study if they have received either one or completed both doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine and was subsequently inflicted with COVID-19 between 1^st March until 31^st May 2021. HCW were excluded whose gestation was not between 14-33 weeks at the time of the first dose and individuals who had a history of severe anaphylaxis reaction.

Results

A total of 39 HCWs tested positive for SARS CoV-2 through RT-PCR. 6(15.4%) of them tested positive after their first dose while 33 (84.6%) staff were confirmed to be infected after receiving the second dose. For the job category, 21(53.8%) nurses, 7(18%) physicians, 6 attendants (15.4%) and 5(12.8%) supporting staff were infected. 21 were indicated for testing because of close contact with positive SARS CoV-2 patients, whether they were symptomatic or not during the time of testing. The balance of the HCW were tested because they presented with symptoms ranging from mild flu and sore throat to cough and fever. 11 of the HCW (28.2 %) have underlying comorbidity declared prior to vaccination and the rest did not declare any previous underlying medical illness. 33.3%(n=13) of the HCW tested positive were in category 1 and 66.7%(n=26) in category 2. Both categories did not require any hospital admission and they were closed monitoring throughout the maximum of 10 days for isolation at home. They were only admitted if unable to isolate themselves at home.

Conclusion

Well-organized surveillance system is essential for early detection of infected HCW. COVID-19 vaccination among HCW did not only prevent them from getting seriously ill, but also reduced the need for ICU admission and eventually reduced the burden of the disease in the country.