Elevated COVID-19 Case Rates of Government Employees, District of Columbia, 2020-2022

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the rate ratio (RR) of reported Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases among governmental employees from seven District of Columbia (D.C.) departments from March 2020 to February 2022.

Methods: Poisson regression models were used to estimate the RR by department, using D.C. residents as the reference and the person-day as the offset. The COVID-19 surveillance data and the full-time equivalent hours for each department were obtained from the D.C. governmental websites.

Results: Five of the seven departments had statistically significant higher COVID-19 case rates than D.C. residents. Stratified by four pandemic stages, RR of Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS), Office of Unified Communication (OUC), and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) were consistently >1: FEMS: 3.34 (95% confidence interval, CI [2.94, 3.77]), 2.39 (95% CI [2.06, 2.75]), 2.48 (95% CI [2.06, 2.95]), and 3.90 (95% CI [3.56, 4.26]), respectively; OUC: 1.47 (95% CI [0.92, 2.18]), 2.72 (95% CI [1.93, 3.69]), 1.85 (95% CI [1.09, 2.92]), and 2.18 (95% CI [1.62, 2.85]), respectively; and MPD: 2.33 (95% CI [2.11, 2.58]), 1.96 (95% CI [1.75, 2.18]), 1.52 (95% CI [1.29, 1.77]), and 1.76 (95% CI [1.60, 1.92]), respectively.

Conclusions: The results suggested higher case rates for emergency responders and frontline personnel than for general population in D.C.

Keywords: COVID-19; District of Columbia; SARS-CoV-2; emergency responders; occupational health.