Health workers are at least three times more likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 than the general population, according to the first prospective observational study on the subject.

The study of three million people in the UK and US has found the unadjusted prevalence of PCR-confirmed COVID-19 was 2747 per 100,000 among health workers compared with 242 per 100,000 in the general community.

After adjusting for the fact that health workers were more frequently tested for COVID-19, they remained 3.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with the virus, said the researchers from the international Coronavirus Pandemic Epidemiology (COPE) Consortium.

It comes as Victorian health officials have updated their PPE recommendations to say health workers must wear a P2/N95 respirator “in settings with high numbers of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 positive patients”.