Community pharmacists' exposure to COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Epidemiology
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Healthcare workers faced significant SARS-CoV-2 exposure during the Italian outbreak.
• Limited data existed on community pharmacists' occupational exposure, symptoms, and testing for COVID-19.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate occupational exposure, symptom development, and COVID-19 testing practices among Italian community pharmacists.
• To estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 in this cohort.

Main Methods:

• A social media-administered questionnaire surveyed 1632 Italian community pharmacists between April 30th and May 10th.
• Survey data reflected the general community pharmacist population demographics.

Main Results:

• 38.2% of pharmacists reported at least one COVID-19 symptom.
• 6.2% were tested, with 15% (0.92% of all participants) testing positive.
• Protective measures were adopted in 99.9% of pharmacies.

Conclusions:

• Community pharmacists likely had early and increased contact risk with SARS-CoV-2.
• COVID-19 prevalence in this group may be underestimated.
• High adoption of protective measures may have mitigated spread.