A retrospective observational insight into COVID-19 exposures resulting from personal protective equipment (PPE) breaches.

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) stand the risk of acquiring infection directly, while attending to patients or indirectly while handling and testing patient specimens. Considering this, the present study was planned to assess Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) breaches and exposures among HCWs working in COVID-19 wards/ screening areas and to evaluate their COVID-19 positivity rates post-exposure concerning the level of exposure, type of PPE breach, and the cadre of HCWs exposed in COVID-19 wards.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study involved the analysis of all instances of PPE breaches which occurred during a period of nine months from June 2020 to February 2021 at a tertiary care level hospital in Central India.