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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been posing a public health threat since early 2020. Pandemic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has already caused more than 3.1 million infections and 224 000 deaths globally over a period of 4 months. The overwhelming number of individuals who are infected not only leads to widespread community lockdowns, but also paralyzes health care systems and puts health care workers (HCWs) at potential risk. Although cases of HCWs who are infected owing to community or nosocomial acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 have been receiving unparalleled attention in social media and are increasingly reported in many parts of the world, as of yet there have been few scientific reports specifically looking into this aspect. The studies by Kluytmans-van den Bergh et el1 and Lai et al2 report on SARS-CoV-2 infection rates of HCWs in 2 countries. Kluytmans-van den Bergh at el1 described a group of HCWs with predominantly community acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 in the Netherlands,1 whereas Lai et al2 presented another group of HCWs with predominantly nosocomial acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China, where cases of COVID-19 were first reported. Lai et al2 described a cohort of 110 HCWs with symptomatic COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital in Wuhan, China, with more than 7000 beds that was designated to care for patients with COVID-19 in both outpatient and inpatient settings during the early phase of the epidemic. From January 1 to February 9, 2020, one-third of HCWs were deployed to high-risk areas, including fever clinics and wards, to care for 10 830 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, and 17 of 3110 frontline HCWs (0.55%) were infected with SARS-CoV-2. This relatively low infection rate is reassuring, as it suggests that personal protective equipment, if available, can protect frontline HCWs directly caring for patients with COVID-19. However, the infection rate was higher, at 73 of 4433 HCWs (1.65%), among non-frontline HCWs who only cared for patients who did not fulfill the clinical and epidemiological criteria of COVID-19. Another 20 of 2012 HCWs without direct patient contact (0.99%) were also confirmed to be infected, which suggests a community source of infection. The apparent higher rate of infection among HCWs working in low-risk areas deserves further investigation. Lack of awareness among staff may be one of the reasons. However, infection control training had been arranged for HCWs by either face-to-face sharing or using mobile electronic devices. Appropriate personal protective equipment, such as gloves and gowns, were provided in both highand low-risk areas, whereas N95 respirators were used in high-risk areas and surgical masks were used in low risk areas. The presence of patients with subclinical or asymptomatic SARSCoV-2 infection may have played an important role in nosocomial transmission in low-risk areas, especially when aerosol-generating procedures, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, manual ventilation, endotracheal intubation, tracheostomy, noninvasive ventilation, and bronchoscopy, are performed. These procedures may have resulted in opportunistic airborne transmission similar to the experience of SARS in 2003,3 despite the fact that droplet and contact routes are considered to be the predominant mode of transmission for SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, optimal architectural and engineering design of hospital wards can help to alleviate the risk by rapid dilution of SARS-CoV-2– laden aerosols in clinical areas. In addition to nosocomial acquisition of SARS-CoV-2, HCWs may also be infected with SARSCoV-2 in the community. Kluytmans-van den Bergh at el1 assessed the prevalence and clinical manifestations of COVID-19 among HCWs in 2 hospitals in the Netherlands in the early phase of the pandemic.1 In their cross-sectional study, 86 of 1353 HCWs who reported fever or respiratory symptoms in the last 10 days (6.36%) had positive reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction + Related articles