Coronavirus: 7,000 health workers have died around world, Amnesty reports

‘Every health worker has the right to be safe at work, and it is a scandal that so many are paying the ultimate price,’ Amnesty official says

Vincent Wood
Friday 04 September 2020 08:10 BST
Comments
Some 649 UK healthcare workers were reported to have died from Covid-19 so far according to the Amnesty International figures - up on Brazil’s 634
Some 649 UK healthcare workers were reported to have died from Covid-19 so far according to the Amnesty International figures - up on Brazil’s 634

The UK is the third-worst country in the world for healthcare worker deaths related to Covid-19, figures from Amnesty international suggest.

The human rights organisation reported some 7,000 workers in the sector worldwide have died over the course of the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 860,000 people.

And despite having a significantly smaller population the UK has reported more deaths among its health workforce than Brazil, with the US and Mexico the only nations to have experienced a higher total.

Some 649 UK healthcare workers were reported to have died from Covid-19 so far according to the Amnesty International figures – up on Brazil’s 634.

Meanwhile some 1,077 people in the sector were found to have died from the disease caused by the Sars-Cov-2 virus in the US, while 1,320 such fatalities were confirmed in Mexico.

Carissa Etienne, director of the PanAmerican Health Organization, said on Wednesday that the Americas has “the highest number of health care workers infected in the world.”

“In the US and Mexico — which have some of the highest case counts in the world — health workers represent one in every seven cases,” Ms Etienne said.

She added: “Countries must ensure that health workers can do their jobs safely.”

In Mexico healthcare professionals have held protests and rallies over the lack of readily available personal protective equipment (PPE), while critics have raised concerns over the lack of testing being conducted despite a high rate of apparent infection.

According to figures released last week, 97,632 nurses, doctors and other hospital employees in Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began — about 17 per cent of all the country’s cases at that point.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice, called the worldwide death toll of over 7,000 health workers “a crisis on a staggering scale”.

“Every health worker has the right to be safe at work, and it is a scandal that so many are paying the ultimate price,” he said.

Mr Cockburn urged an international cooperative effort to ensure that every health care worker has adequate protective equipment.

Additional reporting by AP

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in