A study shows that one in seven members of staff at St James's Hospital had caught Covid-19 by October 2020.
The PRECISE Study was published yesterday and it observed staff at two Irish hospitals for coronavirus antibodies.
Anti-bodies are specialised proteins produced in the body while it is tackling the virus. They are only present in people who have had it in the past.
The study noted that it is likely that hospital staff were working while unknowingly infected with the virus.
Some 3042 of the 4692 (65%) staff at St James's took part in the study.
It found that 15% of the participants at St James’s Hospital were carrying antibodies, a figure that jumped to 21% among staff who have daily contact with COVID-19 patients.
The study notes that 9.6% of the St James’s participants had already tested positive - meaning 5.4% (around 164 people) had fought off the virus without ever testing positive.
The study found that healthcare assistants are most at risk of contracting COVID-19 in hospitals, followed by nurses and then doctors.
Antibodies were detected among 27% of healthcare assistants, 21% of nurses and 14% of doctors that participated.
The virus rate among hospital staff was six times higher in the hospitals compared to community transmission.
The authors of the report are calling for testing of all staff following outbreaks or the detection of cases linked to hospital settings considering some staff may have COVID and mightn't even know they have it.
They also called for “mass serial screening of asymptomatic health care workers.”
HSE National Clinical Director Dr Lorraine Doherty said the study will help the health service respond to the outbreak of the virus.
She said: “It is also important to note that antibody positivity cannot be taken to mean a person is immune, and all Infection Prevention and Control measures still need to be followed,” she said.
“The study will be repeated in the springtime to see how seroprevalence changes with successive waves of the pandemic, and how antibody status changes in the individuals who participate both times.
“The second round of testing will also look at vaccine response versus natural infection, given recent commencement of the national vaccination programme.”
