Doctors face a six-fold higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 than those with non-essential jobs, a UK study shows.

Researchers linked data on more than 120,000 Britons in the UK Biobank study with COVID-19 test results to examine how infection affected essential workers, including those in the healthcare sector.

In total 271 of the participants developed severe COVID-19 between March and July 2020. Researchers considered severe infection to be a positive result for a SARS-CoV-2 test while in hospital, or death caused by the coronavirus.

Among healthcare workers, medical support staff such as hospital porters and nursing assistants faced the highest risk of serious illness (almost nine times greater than non-essential workers) followed by nurses and paramedics (7.5 times greater) and doctors and pharmacists (six times higher risk).