Profile of COVID-19 breakthrough cases and its comparison with unvaccinated COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers in a tertiary care centre in North Kerala.

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) were the most vulnerable group during COVID-19 pandemic and had faced many challenges including high rate of breakthrough infections. To study the incidence of reported breakthrough infections among HCWs in Government Medical College, Kozhikode and to compare profile of COVID-19 infection between fully vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 positive HCWs. The research was conducted as a prospective study for a duration of 78 weeks from 1^st of March 2020 through 31^st of August 2021 in Government Medical College, Kozhikode. The study was conducted among HCWs in a COVID-19 tertiary care institute. Real-time data were collected from 401 breakthrough cases and 390 unvaccinated COVID-19 positive HCWs through telephonic interviews. Univariate analysis was done using frequency for categorical variables and mean and standard deviation for quantitative variables. Chi-square test was used to find out statistical significance. Incidence of breakthrough infection was found to be 5.62% with 43.3% being asymptomatic. Fever was the most predominant symptom (62.5%). None of the breakthrough cases developed complication requiring intensive care (ICU). There was a reduction in incidence of acute post-COVID-19 syndrome in vaccinated group (17.45%) compared to unvaccinated group (57.2%). COVID-19 vaccination plays a key role in preventing severity, complication, and ICU admissions in COVID-19 infection. Incidence of post-COVID-19 syndrome is also less among fully vaccinated compared to unvaccinated individuals.