Dr. Edward Kelley, the World Health Organization's (WHO) director for integrated health services, on Friday stressed the need to concentrate on health care workers' safety and protection amid the COVID-19 crisis as they are the most vulnerable due to being on the frontline of the fight against the disease
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2020) Dr. Edward Kelley, the World Health Organization's (WHO) director for integrated health services, on Friday stressed the need to concentrate on health care workers' safety and protection amid the COVID-19 crisis as they are the most vulnerable due to being on the frontline of the fight against the disease.
"Right now, in terms of what is reported to WHO, the health workers ... [account for] about 14 percent of all the infections that are reported to us. There's limited data on this, but I think it's highlighted that we need to study more, and it certainly puts the spotlight on ... reforming and supporting health workers in all aspects - and we're talking about not just care deliverers, but the people who clean the rooms, the people who work in the community, outreach workers have been majorly impacted," Kelley told a virtual briefing.
Reforms are important in the wake of the near collapse of the world's health care systems at the peak of the pandemic, according to the WHO official.
"There has been an impact across the board in terms of health services. About half of all health services at one point were interrupted," he said.
Countries' health systems have been under severe strain due to the large number of people with atypical pneumonia who need hospital treatment in order to survive. China and Italy, the two epicenters of the disease early on, have seen huge proportions of their medical staff infected, with protective gear not always available in the early days of the pandemic.
