Thu 29 October 2020:
At least 1,500 nurses worldwide have now died from COVID-19, according to the International Council of Nurses (ICN).
Howard Catton, chief executive of ICN, said that was the same number of nurses who were killed in World War I.
“We know in the last few days there are 1,500 nurses, tragically and sadly, who have lost their lives to this disease,” Catton told Euronews.
“Nurses are angry about the lack of preparedness but they are also angry about the lack of support that they have received.
“We need to move on from the warm words to real action because none of us are going to cope and our economies won’t recover if we don’t keep our healthcare workers and nurses working and looking after all of us.”
“Since May 2020, we have been calling for the standardized and systematic collection of data on healthcare worker infections and deaths, and the fact that is still not happening is a scandal.”
ICN’s analysis suggests that about 10% of cases globally are among healthcare workers, the statement said.
“As of this week there are more than 43 million cases worldwide with approximately 2.6% of those, 1.1 million, resulting in deaths,” it said.
Even if the case fatality ratio among the more than 4 million healthcare workers infected is only 0.5%, more than 20,000 healthcare workers could have died from the virus, read the statement.
Catton said 2020 is the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and the 200th anniversary of famous British nurse Florence Nightingale’s birth.
“Florence demonstrated during the Crimean War how the collection and analysis of data can improve our understanding of risks to health, improve clinical practices and save lives, and that includes nurses and healthcare workers,” he said.
“I am sure she would have been immensely saddened and angry about this lack of data [about healthcare worker infections and deaths].”
Catton said reports of demonstrations and strikes by nurses in Europe over the handling of the COVID-19 crisis were not surprising because the world “went into this pandemic so badly prepared.”
“Nurses will have a major role to play in what comes after COVID,” he said.
“This is a major lesson for the future. When this is over, we must never take our health systems for granted again, and we must invest much more heavily in them and our health workers.”
