Protecting Healthcare workers from COVID-19

While there is general agreement on many aspects of policy to protect healthcare workers, approaches to implementation have varied widely in response to local circumstances and there is limited evidence available to guide local decisions. Differences include the availability of personal protective equipment; operational requirements or needs; variations in policies influencing the availability of COVID-19 test kits or related reagents; and approaches to exposure monitoring and contact tracing for healthcare workers. Given the critical role healthcare workers play in the pandemic response, it is essential for policymakers to understand and scrutinize their scientific and contextual rationales. This project aims to inform policy and public health responses to protect healthcare workers. Through research studies in Canada and South Africa, and using comparative data from an ongoing multi-country study, the team will generate findings to determine what works to protect healthcare workers, in which contexts, using which mechanisms, and to achieve which outcome. These findings will be shared with decision-makers at local, provincial, national, and international levels and disseminated through academic publications. This project was selected for funding through the COVID-19 May 2020 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity, which was coordinated by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in partnership with IDRC and other funders.