Coughing Covid patients put frontline NHS staff at higher risk of catching the virus, study finds 

Coughing coronavirus patients are putting frontline NHS staff at greater risk of catching the virus than first thought, according to a new study.

Researchers found that coughing produces 10 times more infectious ‘aerosol’ particles compared to speaking or breathing.

There are now calls for healthcare workers, who are already up to four times more likely to contract coronavirus than the general population, to be given FFP3 respirator masks and to improve hospital ventilation.

The infection rates among general hospital staff are almost double those of intensive care unit workers who have access to full PPE. 

Some of the frontline health workers who have died with coronavirus during the pandemic

Coughing coronavirus patients are putting frontline NHS staff at greater risk of catching the virus than first thought, according to a new study (stock image)

While employees in other hospital areas, GP surgeries and care homes are given surgical masks which stop the larger virus-carrying droplets, they do not always keep out the aerosol particles.

It was previously assumed that ICU wards were more dangerous as some treatments used to support the breathing of Covid patients, like continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), would generate large quantities of these tiny molecules.

But the latest research led by Dr James Dodd, a consultant senior lecturer in respiratory medicine at North Bristol Lung Centre and the University of Bristol, claims it is the opposite way…