DUBLIN: The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the infection rate of COVID-19 among health workers is steadily declining.
The COVID virus has been plaguing among health care workers disproportionately since the beginning of the pandemic. Many have lost their lives. The virus did not leave health workers even at the start of its second wave.
The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tony Holohan said yesterday that 6% of COVD-19 patients in Ireland are health workers. However, the WHO says that the incidence of the disease among health workers is declining. The UN agency released the new figures after analysing reports from 83 countries, mainly in Europe and the United States.
Although the corona virus crisis has taken a heavy toll overall, statistics from many countries show that health care workers are infected at a much higher rate than the general population. Health workers represent less than 3% of the population in most countries. However, 14% of the COVID-19 cases reported to the WHO were health workers. In some countries more than a third of the cases were among nurses.
The World Health Organisation’s epidemiologist Anne Perrocheau told a virtual press conference that the proportion of health workers with new cases has dropped dramatically. Their ratio is now close to the share of the general population.
Perrocheau said the increase in the number of health workers was due to a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the beginning and a lack of training in its use.
The corona virus, which appeared in China late last year, has infected more than 38 million people and 1.1 million people died. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the epidemic is entering a second deadly wave and acknowledges that the virus is spreading around the world.