Diagnosis of surveillance, prevention, and control of COVID-19 in Peruvian mining work

Abstract

Introduction: In Peru, mining companies had to register and implement the Plan for the surveillance, prevention, and control of COVID-19 at work (requested by the Ministry of Health), prior to restarting activities suspended due to the pandemic. Objective: To describe the situational status of the plans for the surveillance, prevention, and control of COVID-19 at work in the mining sector (1 st and 2nd phases of economic reactivation, 2020). Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out of the database from the SISCOVID- Empresas system. Frequencies and proportions of the characteristics of the plans were reported (region of origin, number of workers, number of health professionals, existence of an occupational health and safety committee or supervisor, status of registration and budget report) according to the number of company workers. Results: In total 2,236 plan records were reviewed. Of the total, 6.2% of the registered plans indicate that they do not have an occupational health and safety supervisor or committee, and 71.5% do not have a health professional. Furthermore, 81.2% of the companies with more than 500 workers had medicine and nursing professionals, and 89.2% of companies with 1 to 20 workers did not have health professionals. Conclusions: Three out of 4 companies in the mining sector fail to comply with the requirements of the plan for the surveillance, prevention, and control of COVID-19 at work.

Keywords

• minería
• salud ocupacional
• política de salud
• covid-19.