Observer Report
Madrid
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in its recent report noted that 20% of registered coronavirus cases in Spain are healthcare workers, more than hard hit european country Italy (10%) the United States,3% and China 3.8%.
The Spanish Health Ministry reported that 35,295 healthcare workers are infected, 940 more than on Thursday. In Italy, the second most affected European country, there are just under 18,000 infected healthcare workers, according to figures released on Tuesday by Italian health authorities.
According to media reports Besides the more than 35,000 health professionals regional statistics shows that nearly 12,000 employees of senior residences and other care centers have also been infected. But the real figure is probably much higher.
The high number of infections among health personnel in Spain is due to the absence of “the indispensable safety measures” that should have preserved their health, According to the Spanish Medical Colleges Organization (OMC), a regulatory body for the medical profession. 37 healthcare workers have died of coronavirus in Spain.
“There weren’t face masks for the workers. And when the masks arrived, many of them were defective. At this point in time, not all doctors and professionals have been tested yet. You cannot confront an epidemic of this magnitude in these conditions,” says the organization, which is planning to pursue legal action in cases involving defective face masks for healthcare workers.
Manuel Cascos, president of the nurses’ union Satse, also blames a lack of protective gear and testing kits for the high prevalence of infections among health personnel. “This was the determining factor,” says Cascos.
The union estimates that between 60% and 65% of affected healthcare workers are nurses. “The lack of foresight and diligence by the relevant health authorities has put healthcare professionals in a position of great defenselessness, where they remain to this day,” says Cascos.
Satse said it will report this “deplorable situation” to the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Organization and the European Commission, among others.
Quoting a health expert El Pais newspaper wrote “Healthcare professionals went to war without protection,” says Daniel López Acuña, a former WHO official who teaches at the Andalusian School of Public Health. “First they got infected, and later, without knowing it because many of them were asymptomatic, they infected colleagues and patients.”
