Characteristics of workers' compensation claim applications for COVID-19 infections in South Korea

This study aimed to identify the major industries and jobs with the highest proportion of workers' compensation (WC) claims for COVID-19, characterize COVID-19 WC claims in terms of their demographic properties and disease severity, and identify factors influencing the approval of COVID-19 WC claims as occupational disease. A total of 488 workers who submitted COVID-19-related claims to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (KWCWS) from January 2020 to July 2021 were analyzed. A Fisher's exact test was employed to associate the severity of COVID-19 infection with demographic properties. The highest proportion of all COVID-19 WC claims compensated as occupational disease (N=462) were submitted by healthcare workers (HCW=233, 50%), while only 9% (N=41) of the total originated from manufacturing industries. The 5% (N=26) of the COVID-19 WC claims accepted were evaluated as severe (N=15) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (N=9). A total of 71% (N=329) of the COVID-19 patients compensated (N=462) were from workplaces with infection clusters. A total of 26 WC cases were rejected for various reasons, including unclear infection routes, infection at private gatherings (including within families), no diagnosis, and more. Given our findings, we suggest an official system should be established to detect and compensate more job-associated infectious diseases like COVID-19.