Covid-19 kills 2,000 Americas healthcare workers

The American continent has the highest number of health workers infected with COVID-19 in the world, ”  reported the Pan American Health Organization ( OPS) on  Wednesday, September 2.

“Our data shows that almost 570,000 healthcare workers across the region have fallen ill and more

than 2,500 have succumbed to the virus. According to this, we have the highest number of

infected healthcare workers in the world to date,” said OPS director Carissa Etienne said, during a video press conference.

She said that despite “hopeful trends” in the region, “the human cost of the pandemic remains unacceptably high, with almost 4,000 deaths a day in our region” and “no other group has felt it more acutely” than those who make up the health care workforce.

Etienne highlighted that women, the majority among health personnel in the Americas region, are also the most affected, representing almost three-quarters of health workers diagnosed with Covid-19.

In the United States and Mexico, two of the countries most affected by the pandemic, infected health workers are equivalent to one in seven cases.

“In fact, the United States and Mexico account for almost 85% of all COVID deaths among healthcare workers in the region,” Etienne said.