washington researchers from the university of washington have estimated that 144 million workers face exposure to covid19 infection once a week and 267 million at least once a month at the workplacetens of millions of employees in the across the country are thought to be exposed to the disease at work at least once a week revealed the study published in the journal plos onecoronavirus lockdown latest updatesour findings serve as an important reminder that the workplace should be a focus for public health intervention especially during disease outbreaks such as covid19 said study author marissa baker assistant professor in the uw school of public healthusing federal employment data the researchers determined 10 per cent 14425070 of us workers are employed in occupations where exposure to disease or infection happens at least weekly based on employee and employer selfreportaccording to the study 184 per cent 26669810 of us workers are employed in occupations where exposure to disease or infection happens at least monthly based on employee and employer selfreportwhile healthcare occupations represent the bulk of workers exposed to infection and disease other occupations that frequently interface with the public and provide essential services are also at increased risk of exposure the researchers said more on covid19coronavirus pandemic complete coverage21day lockdown what will stay open and what wonthow to quarantine yourself at hometrust the newspaper for your daily verified newsthose include police officers firefighters childcare workers and personal care aidessome workers who are in higherpaying and more secure jobs often salaried can work from home or afford more time away from work but many dont have these same options such as workers who participate in the gig economy or are independent contractors and are typically not considered employeesthese workers dont benefit from employee protective policies such as sick leave putting them at increased risk of having to work when they or a loved one is sick despite public health guidanceeven if a worker does have paid sick leave and knows how to access it a variety of other real and perceived pressures such as an economy that rewards people who are working hard at all times or pressure to perform work that no one else can perform encourages workers to come to work sick a phenomena researchers term presenteeismestimating the burden of us workers exposed to infection or disease is a key factor in containing the risk of covid19 infection said bakerthis latest research comes as the country currently accounts for the highest number of coronavirus cases as well as deaths in the worldas of friday morning the cases increased to 1069424 with 63006 deaths according to the johns hopkins university new york state the epicentre of the pandemic in the us reported over 300000 covid19 cases by thursday with over 160000 in new york city