Community pharmacists' exposure to COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Since the beginning of the 2020 Sars-CoV-2 Italian outbreak, healthcare workers have been among the most exposed categories. There is little information about community pharmacists' on occupational exposure, symptoms development, and testing practices in the community pharmacist cohort.

Methods: Between April 30th and May 10th, a questionnaire was administered through social media to Italian community pharmacists. From 67000 pharmacists currently working in community pharmacies, 1632 answered the survey.

Results: The survey population reflected the general Italian community pharmacists population in terms of age, gender, and number of co-workers. Protective measures were adopted in up to 99.9% of pharmacies. 624 pharmacists (38.2%) developed at least one COVID-19 related symptom in the period between February 28th and May 10th. Also, 102 pharmacists (6.2%) were tested for COVID-19 and 15, the 15% of the tested population and 0.92% of the whole survey population, resulted positive on nasopharyngeal swab. However, while the number of symptomatic pharmacists decreased, a higher number of tests were performed, thus COVID-19 prevalence among community pharmacists could have been underestimated and is probably intermediate between other healthcare workers and the general population (0.31%).

Conclusion: Community pharmacists have probably been one of the first categories to experience increased contact risk to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 prevalence among pharmacists could have been underestimated. In addition, the rates of protection measures adoption might have helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among co-workers and the community.

Keywords: COVID-19; Community pharmacists; Healthcare workers.