| Summary: | Hayat Mushcab,1 Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq,2– 4 Mohammed Ghamdi,5 Amani Babgi,6 Abdulrazack Amir,7 Salwa S Sheikh,8 Adel Darwisheh,9 Abrar Alobaid,9 Arulanantham Zechariah Jebakumar,10 Saeed Qahtani,11 Ahmed Al Sagheir1 1Research Office, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 2Infectious Disease Unit – Specialty Internal Medicine, and Quality and Patient Safety Department, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 3Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 4Infectious Disease Division, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 5Population Health Department, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; 6Clinical Practice Education & Research, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 7Office of Academic Affairs, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 8Pathology Department, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 9Laboratory Services Department, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 10Vice Deanship of Postgraduate Studies Research, Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia; 11Wellness Institute, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Eastern Province, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Hayat Mushcab, Research Office, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, 31311, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Tel +966540066447, Email hayat.almushcab@jhah.comBackground: The nature of the healthcare workers’ jobs standing at the frontline against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) puts them at a higher risk of unknowingly contracting the disease and potentially contributing to the spread. This study aims to assess the overall positive seroconversion prevalence of SARS-CoV-2.Methods: This is a longitudinal cohort study of healthcare workers at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH). JHAH is a tertiary hospital located in Dhahran serving patients in several districts in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Participants were recruited between June and December 2020. Each participant had a serology blood test and completed the World Health Organization’s risk factor assessment questionnaire.Results: This study included 682 participants working in JHAH, representing 15.7% of our population. Out of the 682 participants, 15.2% had a positive SARS-CoV-2 rt-PCR before taking part in the study. However, only 87 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, a prevalence of 12.7% of all participants. Out of the 87 positives for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, 17 participants never tested positive for COVID-19 rt-PCR, a prevalence of 2.9%. Moreover, not properly using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water after the risk of body fluid exposure and wearing personal protective equipment when indicated were found to be statistically significant to having a positive SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay.Conclusion: Positive seroconversion rate was considerably low during the first wave of COVID-19 amongst JHAH’s healthcare workers and similar to other healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia. Seropositivity correlated significantly with following infection prevention and control recommendations.Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT04469647.Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus disease-2019, HCW, healthcare workers, prevalence, SARS-CoV-2
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