COVID-19 death toll among nurses doubled in past month, says nurses group

By Cecile Mantovani
GENEVA, June 3 (Reuters) - More than 600 nurses worldwide
are known to have died from COVID-19, which has infected an
estimated 450,000 healthcare workers, the International Council
of Nurses said on Wednesday.
The death toll among nurses more than doubled in the past
month from 260 on May 6, according to its figures, which are
based on data from more than 30 countries. "In the last two months, we have seen the number of deaths
of nurses as a result of coronavirus around the world rise from
100 to now in excess of 600 and we think worldwide the number of
healthcare workers who could be infected by the virus is around
450,000," Howard Catton, chief executive officer of the
Geneva-based ICN, told Reuters Television.
"These are numbers that keep going up," he said.
The pandemic's true cost among health professionals was not
known, the association said, renewing its appeal for greater
protection for them and systematic collection of reliable data.
On average, 7 percent of all cases of COVID-19, the lung
disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are among healthcare
workers, which means that nurses and other staff are at great
personal risk "and so are the patients they care for", it said.
Extrapolating from more than 6 million reported cases gave
its estimate of some 450,000 infections among healthcare
workers.
Infection rates among healthcare workers vary greatly
between countries, with fewer than 1% in Singapore and more than
30% in Ireland, it said. Spain and Germany have recorded low
numbers of fatalities among healthcare workers despite large
outbreaks, it added.
"Why do the rates of deaths among nurses appear higher in
some Latin American countries?" it asked, referring to the
region that the World Health Organization (WHO) says has emerged
as the new epicentre for the pandemic. "Why are some countries reporting disproportionate deaths
among black, Asian and minority ethnic HCWs (healthcare
workers)? This is an issue raised directly by the Philippine
Nurses Association to ICN, concerning Filipino HCWs in the UK,"
it said.
The ICN represents 130 national associations and more than
20 million registered nurses.