Health Care Workers' Safety
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Health care workers are not 100% protected even with adequate gloves, gowns, and face masks worn while attending to coronavirus disease patients, according to a new study from King's College London.

Health care workers who are wearing personal protective equipment still had 3.4 times the risk of getting the disease compared to the general population; the study found out.

Also, minority healthcare workers, such as African America, Latinos, and other ethnic groups, had an even higher risk of contracting the disease.

"A little over 20 percent of frontline healthcare workers reported at least one symptom associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with 14.4 percent of the general population," the researchers were quoted in a report.

The researchers added that the most common symptoms were fatigue, loss of smell or taste, and hoarse voice.

The researchers conducted the study with the COVID Symptom Tracker app to look at the date of more than two million people, with almost 100,000 frontline healthcare workers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The study found out that with 100,000 health care workers, 2,700 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded. This compared to 100,000 among the general population, with 240 COVID-19 cases.

"After accounting for differences in testing for healthcare workers compared with the general community, the researchers estimate frontline workers are around 3.4 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19," the researchers said.

The researchers concluded that there is still an increased risk of infection despite wearing PPE.

King's College London professor and senior study author Sebastien Ourselin added that minority healthcare workers had an elevated risk of getting the disease, adding that these groups were most likely to report a shortage in PPE and were forced to reuse equipment.

The study was published in the journal Lancet Public Health on Friday.

Health Care Workers and COVID-19

The World Health Organization announced that more than 1.4 million COVID-19 infections are accounted for by healthcare workers, at least 10 percent of all cases.

According to an Aljazeera report, over 3,000 health care workers are known to have died to the COVID-19 in Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The report added that Russia had 545 healthcare worker deaths from COVID-19, followed by the UK with 540 deaths, and the US with 507.

UK rights group, Amnesty International, said that the global toll was much likely higher due to under-reporting.

Sanhita Ambast, Amnesty's researcher and adviser on economic, social, and cultural rights, said that the government should start taking health essential workers' lives seriously.

Ambast added that it is also disturbing how governments are punishing workers for saying their concerns about their working conditions.

Several states in the US have also reported a shortage of COVID-19 medical supplies in their hospitals.

According to a report in New York, officials have been searching for where to source medical supplies and hospital beds.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that everything that can be done is being done.

A hospital in Starr County, Texas, was forced to choose who is "sent home to die" with the growing number of confirmed cases in Texas.

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