Annalee Yassi, Stephen Barker, Karen Lockhart, Deanne Taylor, Devin Harris, Harsh Hundal, Jennifer M Grant, Arnold Ikedichi Okpan, Sue Pollock, Stacy Sprague, Chad Kim Sing
INTRODUCTION: Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a critical role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Early in the pandemic, urban centres were hit hardest globally; rural areas gradually became more impacted. We compared COVID-19 infection and vaccine uptake in HCWs living in urban versus rural locations within, and between, two health regions in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We also analysed the impact of a vaccine mandate for HCWs. METHODS: We tracked laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections, positivity rates and vaccine uptake in all 29,021 HCWs in Interior Health (IH) and all 24,634 HCWs in Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), by occupation, age and home location, comparing to the general population in that region...
2023: Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine