Aim: To determine the risk of paper-based request forms transmitting the severe acute respiratory virus coronavirus-2 to laboratory personnel in order to offer suggestions for dealing with hospital paperwork in the post-COVID-19 era.

Study design: Comparative study

Place and duration: This study was conducted at Mohammad Medical and Dental College Mirpurkhas, Pakistan from July 2020 to December 2020.

Methodology:

Different request forms either manually or digitally produced were tracked from the minute they were typed up or handwritten until the moment the pathology report was issued in order to track how each staff personnel were exposed to the transmission of COVID-19 and whether the risk of transmission was greater if the request reports were received from higher COVID-19 risk areas or moderate risk areas. This tracking included any paper document or handwritten request and did include all hospital departments. This study included the reports for histopathological and non-gynecological cytological cases which were recorded and tracked as well.

Results: Within 24 hours, 432 (83%) of the 520 forms were received at the laboratory. It took laboratory personnel 24 hours to process the remaining 88 (17%) forms. For various laboratory staff, the average daily exposure time to paperwork was 2.7 minutes for receptionists, 5.5 minutes for technicians, and 54.6 minutes for pathologists.

Conclusion: Paper contamination is a risk for all pathology professionals. To lower the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 strain through the use of paper forms, it is better if the hospital utilizes an electronic report system which can allow the laboratory personnel to print the request forms as needed so that the risk of transmission is lowered.

Keywords: Corona virus, laboratory staff, corona transmission