Occupational Impact of COVID-19 in the Transport and Education Sectors
The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council concludes its report into links between COVID-19 and occupational sectors.
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The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) monitored the occupational impact of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic and in November 2022 published a command paper detailing its findings for health and social care workers (H&SCWs) ‘COVID-19 and Occupational Impacts’.
This report concluded that there was convincing and consistent evidence for health and social care workers in certain occupational settings who presented with 5 serious pathological complications following COVID-19 which had been shown to cause persistent impairment and loss of function in some workers. At that time, there were less consistent findings for other occupational sectors such as transport, education or protective services to make recommendations. IIAC continued to scrutinise the published scientific literature in this field and more evidence became available for transport workers and those working in the education sector.
From the published data on mortality, IIAC took the view that the risks of infection were likely to be more than doubled in transport workers who had been working in proximity to the general public. Based on the available scientific evidence, IIAC recommended prescription for certain workers in the transport sector for the same 5 serious pathological conditions as H&SCWs.
IIAC found no evidence of any marked increase in death rates in workers in the education sector associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the infection risks varied depending on when and where the studies were carried out and, overall, did not provide consistent evidence of a doubled risk in education workers.
Consequently, IIAC was unable to recommend prescription for these workers. Equally, it was not possible for IIAC to recommend prescription for post-COVID Syndrome or long COVID. However, IIAC will continue to monitor the evidence and available data relating to COVID-19. IIAC expects that there will be more evidence on the long-term adverse health consequences of COVID-19, including increased understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of the key symptoms of Post-COVID Syndrome (or long COVID).