Innovation and Knowledge Sharing Can Transform COVID-19 Infection Prevention Response

The cost of not investing in public health pandemic preparedness including measures to protect HCWs is now widely apparent. HCWs have a right to safety in their workplaces as they fulfil their duty of care to patients.¹⁸ Rapid scale-up of diagnostic testing capacity, and bundles of infection prevention interventions including universal masking and drive-through testing, can safeguard HCWs and the patients they serve in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Re-establishing immediate access to quality-assured PPE is imperative to reduce the individual and workforce consequences of HCWs developing COVID-19 or other infectious diseases like TB that are continuously a threat to the workforce. Meanwhile, innovative approaches such as repurposing resources to develop PPE and use of GUV air disinfection may help to mitigate PPE shortages, and use of preventive therapies may also decrease COVID-19 risk in HCWs. Reliable surveillance data on HCW infection rates can help identify and track gaps in infection prevention, as well as identify strategies that impact this outcome. Ultimately greater top-down political commitment is urgently needed to ensure that frontline HCWs have the necessary resources to address the current pandemic and to sustain these interventions to protect HCWs in the future.