{"doi":"10.3390/ijerph20054434","title":"Preventive Measures among Healthcare Workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 Pandemic","abstract":"COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), placed health systems worldwide under immense pressure, and healthcare workers (HCWs) were at the front lines. The Puerto Rico Department of Health confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in March 2020. We aimed to assess whether COVID-19 preventive measures implemented by HCWs were effective in a work scenario before vaccine availability. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study from July to December 2020 to evaluate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), hygiene guidelines, and other measures taken by HCWs to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. We collected nasopharyngeal specimens for molecular testing at the beginning of the study and follow-up. We recruited 62 participants aged 30–59 (79% women). Participants recruited from hospitals, clinical laboratories, and private practice included medical technologists (33%), nurses (28%), respiratory therapists (2%), physicians (11%), and others (26%). Among our participants, nurses were at higher risk (p < 0.05) of infection. We identified that 87% of participants followed the hygiene recommendation guidelines. In addition, all participants practiced handwashing or disinfection before or after caring for each patient. All participants tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 during the study period. On follow-up, all study participants reported being vaccinated against COVID-19. The implementation of PPE and hygiene measures showed high efficacy as a prevention method against SARS-CoV-2 infection when vaccines and treatment were not widely available in Puerto Rico.","journal":"International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health","year":2023,"id":370801,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9622,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1130530,"name":"Aleksis Galloza","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130531,"name":"Edgar J. Medina","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130532,"name":"Valeria Oliver","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130533,"name":"Natalia I. Rodríguez","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130534,"name":"Elizabeth M. Ramos-Colón","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130535,"name":"Mileily Velázquez-Ferrer","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130536,"name":"Dayaneira Rivera-Alers","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130537,"name":"Wanda Vargas","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":425794,"name":"Vanessa Rivera‐Amill","orcid":"0000-0003-4810-0871","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1130529,"name":"Robert Rodríguez-González","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":23,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:15:41.237096Z","pmid":"36901444","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}