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COVID-19 Workplace Outbreaks by Industry Sector and Their Associated Household Transmission, Ontario, Canada, January
Michelle Murti1, Camille Achonu, Brendan T Smith
1Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Murti, Ms Achonu, Dr Smith, Dr Brown, Dr Kim, Mr Johnson, Ms Ravindran, and Dr Buchan); Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Dr Murti, Dr Smith, Dr Kim, and Dr Buchan).
Objective:
To analyze workplace outbreaks by industry sector in the first wave of the pandemic, and associated household cases.
Methods:
Number, size, and duration of outbreaks were described by sector, and outbreak cases were compared to sporadic cases in the same time frame. Address matching identified household cases with onset ≥2 days before, ≥2 days after, or within 1 day of the workplace outbreak case.
Results:
There were 199 outbreaks with 1245 cases, and 68% of outbreaks and 80% of cases belonged to (1) Manufacturing, (2) Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Hunting, (3) Transportation and Warehousing. There were 608 household cases associated with 339 (31%) outbreak cases, increasing the burden of illness by 56%.
Conclusions:
Workplace outbreaks primarily occurred in three sectors. Prevention measures should target industry sectors at risk to prevent spread in and out of the workplace.
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