Covid-19: Nearly 1,000 health workers in Africa infected

Kenyan nurses wear protective gear at Mbagathi Hospital, isolation centre for the disease, in Nairobi.

Nearly one thousand health workers, mostly nurses, have contracted coronavirus in the Africa region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

This is as the world marked the International Nurses Day 2020, celebrated on May 12 every year.

The theme for this year is “Nursing the World to Health".

But there were no celebrations as the nurses remained holed up in hospitals due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed 292,899 people and infected over four million globally, according to the worldometer tally.

"The Covid-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the vital role nurses play. Without nurses and other health workers, we will not win the battle against outbreaks, we will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals or universal health coverage," WHO said in a statement.

The UN health agency called upon governments to make sure that doctors and nurses, especially those that come into close contact with patients who may have coronavirus, had personal protective equipment (PPE).

“Stakeholders must ensure that nurses have the supplies and equipment they need to deliver care safely. Nurses are essential in keeping communities healthy! #NursesDay2020,” the WHO African Region tweeted.

Healthcare workers rely on the PPEs which include gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns and aprons to protect themselves and their patients from being infected and infecting others.

But the high global demand for PPEs has resulted to shortages leaving doctors, nurses and other frontline workers dangerously ill-equipped to care for Covid-19 patients.

Earlier, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged governments to act fast and boost the supply of the essential products to all the health workers globally.

“Without secure supply chains, the risk to healthcare workers around the world is real. Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding. We can’t stop Covid-19 without protecting health workers first,” he said.

To meet rising global demand, WHO estimated that the industry must increase manufacturing by 40 per cent.

According to the Health body, nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers, yet there is an urgent shortage of nurses worldwide with 5.9 million more nurses still needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries.