Data on the impact of Covid-19 on home-care workers is scarce. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of April 9 in the U.S. more than 9,200 health-care professionals, a much broader sector, had been infected with the coronavirus, and said it was likely an undercount. Bianca Frogner, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, estimates that if all such workers were tested, around 425,000 direct-care workers—which includes home-health aides, personal-care aides and nursing assistants—would test positive, based on data as of April 22 from Washington state, New York, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University. The actual positive cases will depend in part, she says, on how well workers are protected with equipment. Read the full article here.
The Wall Street Journal estimates provided by Director Frogner is based on an approached used in an study published on March 31, 2020. To learn more about the magnitude of risk other health care workers may be facing and the methods to estimate this risk, visit this webpage.