Employees in offices are probably likelier to get infected with the novel coronavirus if they typically commute to work instead of working from home, a new report says.
The Study
Public health experts who analyzed possible exposures to the novel coronavirus among employees who tested positive for infection with COVID-19 discovered that they are nearly twice as likely to report commuting to work, in contrast to people who tested negative, recently published research says.
The analysis was carried out as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.
Researchers questioned about 310 people who took COVID-19 tests in July, and approximately half of them ended up positive and compared them to a control group where results were negative.
The majority of both groups, all adults, had full-time, non-essential jobs outside of critical infrastructure and had comparable community exposure to the novel virus regardless of their work.
The groups manifested different behavior – A third of the COVID-19 group patients reported working from home or teleworking at least part-time before receiving a diagnosis. At the same time, half of the control group members registered as working remotely at least sometimes.
In the few weeks before getting sick, members of the COVID-19 group were likelier to report that they worked remotely at least sometimes.
Researchers found a correlation between going to the office regularly and attending mass gatherings.
Still, the study has some limitations, including the potential differences between those willing to participate in the CDC experiment and those who refused.
Some differences are also the results of various work policies and options.
