COVID–19 outbreak rates and infection attack rates associated with the workplace: a descriptive epidemiological study

Abstract

Background: A large number of COVID–19 outbreaks/clusters have been reported in a variety of workplace settings since the start of the pandemic. However, information on the rate of outbreak occurrences which helps to identify the type of workplaces that are more likely to experience an outbreak, or infection attack rates which estimates the potential extent of the virus transmission in an outbreak, has not yet been available to inform intervention strategies to limit transmission . Objectives: To link datasets on workplace settings and COVID–19 workplace outbreaks in England in order to: identify the geographical areas and workplace sectors with a high rate of outbreaks; and compare infection attack rates by workplace size and sector. Methods: We analysed Public Health England (PHE) HPZone data on COVID–19 outbreaks in workplaces, covering the time period of 18 May – 12 October 2020. The workplaces analysed excluded care homes, hospitals and educational settings. We calculated the workplace outbreak rates by nine English regions, 151 Upper Tier Local Authorities (UTLAs) and twelve industrial sectors, using National Population Database (NPD) data extracted in May 2019 on the total number of the relevant workplaces as the denominator. We also calculated the infection attack rates by enterprise size (small, medium, large) and industrial sector, using PHE Situations of Interest (SOI) data on the number of test–confirmed COVID–19 cases in a workplace outbreak as the numerator, and using NPD data on the number employed in that workplace as the denominator. Results: In total, 1,317 confirmed workplace outbreaks were identified from HPZone data, of which 1,305 were available for estimation of outbreak rates. The average outbreak rate was 66 per 100,000 workplaces. Of the nine geographical regions in England, the North West had the highest workplace outbreak rate (155/100,000 workplaces), based on 351 outbreaks. Of the UTLAs, the highest workplace outbreak rate was Blackburn with Darwen (387/100,000 workplaces). The industrial sector with the highest workplace outbreak rate was manufacturers and packers of food (1,672/100,000), based on 117 outbreaks: this was consistent across seven of the regions. In addition, high outbreak rates in warehouses were observed in the East Midlands and the North West. In total, 390 outbreaks were identified from SOI data and 264 of them allowed for estimation of attack rates. The overall median attack rate was 3.4% of the employed persons with confirmed COVID–19 at a workplace with an outbreak. Most of these outbreaks (162) had an attack rate less than 6%. However, in a small number of outbreaks (57) the attack rate was over 15%. The attack rates increased as the size of the enterprise decreased. The highest attack rate was for outbreaks in close contact services (median 16.5%), which was followed by outbreaks in restaurants and catering (median 10.2%), and in manufacturers and packers of non–food products (median 6.7%). Conclusions: Our linked dataset analysis approach allows early identification of geographical regions and industrial sectors with higher rates of COVID–19 workplace outbreaks as well as estimation of attack rates by enterprise size and sector. This can be used to inform interventions to limit transmission of the virus. Our approach to analysing the workplace outbreak data can also be applied to calculation of outbreak rates and attack rates in other types of settings such as care homes, hospitals and educational settings.