The World Health Organisation says between 80,000 and 180,000 health and care workers may have died from Coronavirus (COVID-19)globally between January of 2020 and May, 2021.
WHO gave the estimate in a new working paper: “The impact of COVID-19 on health and care workers: a closer look at deaths’’ based
on the 3.45 million coronavirus-related deaths reported globally.
This figure, WHO said might well be at least 60 per cent lower than the actual number of victims.
To highlight the need for better protection, WHO on Thursday, was joined by global partners working to end the pandemic, to issue an
urgent call for concrete action on behalf of workers in the sector.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, reiterated that “the backbone of every health system is its workforce.
“COVID-19 is a powerful demonstration of just how much we rely on these men and women, and how vulnerable we all are when the
people who protect our health are themselves unprotected,” he said.
WHO and partners said that apart from huge concern over deaths, an increasing proportion of the workforce continued to suffer from
burnout, stress, anxiety and fatigue.
They are calling on leaders and policy makers to ensure equitable access to vaccines so that health and care workers are prioritised.
By the end of September, on average, two in five of these workers are fully vaccinated, but with considerable difference across regions.
