• Tatsuya Yoshihara, Kazuya Ito, Masayoshi Zaitsu, Eunhee Chung, Izumi Aoyagi, Yoshikazu Kaji, Tomomi Tsuru, Takuma Yonemura, Koji Yamaguchi, Shinichi Nakayama, Yosuke Tanaka, Nobuo Yurino, Hideki Koyanagi, Shunji Matsuki, Ryuji Urae, and Shin Irie.
• Clinical Research Center, SOUSEIKAI Fukuoka Mirai Hospital, Kashiiteriha 3-5-1, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 813-0017, Japan.
• Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 5; 18 (7).

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious public health problem worldwide. In general, healthcare workers are considered to be at higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, the prevalence of COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Japan is not well characterized. In this study, we aimed to examine the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies among 2160 healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics that are not designated to treat COVID-19 patients in Japan. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G was 1.2% in August and October 2020 (during and after the second wave of the pandemic in Japan), which is relatively higher than that in the general population in Japan (0.03-0.91%). Because of the higher risk of COVID-19 infection, healthcare workers should be the top priority for further social support and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.

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