Mortes de trabalhadores durante a crise sanitária Covid-19: Minas Gerais, 2019-2021

Abstract

Covid-19, an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, emerged in China in December 2019 and quickly spread worldwide. The infection was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Since then, several protective measures have been recommended in order to decrease the transmission of the virus. Among the measures recommended by the WHO, social distancing was adopted to disrupt the virus transmission chain. However, inequalities in opportunities to avail of the protective measure have been documented. The present study examined the odds of shutdown due to death of celetal employees in Minas Gerais, in the period from 2019 to 2021, according to the sociodemographic and occupational characteristics of the population registered in the General Cadastre for the Employed and Unemployed (Novo - CAGED), of the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE). The central hypothesis concerns the greater odds of shutdown due to death in activities considered essential. This cross-sectional study used secondary data available for access on the MTE website. The National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) and the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO) were used as reference to examine the main hypothesis. The covariates of interest were gender, age, education, race/color, and income. The distribution of total registered employees and those dismissed due to death in 2019, 2020, and 2021 was described according to the major groups and subgroups of the CBO. Probabilistic models estimated by binary logistic regression (LR) were used to assess the odds of shutdown due to death. General RL were developed by nature of occupation and specific by occupational subgroups of three occupational groups structured for the purposes of the study, as follows: health sector, essential sector outside of health and non-essential sector. Men, older people, with a lower level of and people of white race/color had a higher odd of shutdown due to death. This result was maintained in all models in the three occupational groups of interest. Regarding the nature of the occupation, workers in the health and non-health essential sectors had a higher odd of shutdown due to death. In the health sector, physicians, nursing workers, and caregivers had the highest odds of being dismissed due to death. In the non-health essential sector, the highest odds of shutdown due to death was evidenced among utility operators (steam machine operators, water, sewage and gas capture and treatment facilities) in the three periods studied. The rate of change in the incidence of shutdown due to death was considered a marker close to the proportion of deaths directly and indirectly caused by Covid-19. An increase in this rate was observed in the pandemic period, in relation to the pre-pandemic period. The sociodemographic profile of the sample shutdowned due to death, in 2020 and 2021, is consistent with studies on mortality directly and indirectly caused by SARS-CoV-2, with the exception of the result on white race/color. This evidence will be clues both to foment the debate on inequalities in protection opportunities during health crises, and to boost the formulation of strategies to reverse the vulnerable situation of workers in sectors considered essential.