Up to 180,000 Healthcare Workers Could Die from COVID-19 |

This grim appreciation of the trait of the new WHO working paper based on 3.45 million coronavirus-related deaths reported worldwide to the UN health agency prior to May; a figure that WHO said could very well be at least 60 percent lower than the actual number of victims.

To highlight the need for improved protection, global partners have joined WHO to end the pandemic and issued an urgent call for concrete action on behalf of workers in the sector.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated that “the core of every health system is its workforce”.

“COVID-19 is a compelling demonstration of how much we rely on these men and women, and how vulnerable we are all when the people who protect our health are not themselves protected, ”he added.

Vulnerabilities

WHO and partners said that in addition to the huge concern about deaths, an increasing proportion of the workforce continues to suffer from burnout, stress, anxiety and fatigue.

They call on leaders and policy-makers to ensure equal access to vaccines so that healthcare workers and healthcare providers are given priority.

By the end of last month, on average, two out of five of these workers were fully vaccinated, but with significant differences across regions.

“In Africa, less than one in ten health care workers are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, in most high-income countries, more than 80% of health workers are fully vaccinated, ” Tedros said.

More than 10 months have passed since the first vaccines were approved, he said.

Action by the G20

In 10 days, the leaders of the leading industrialized countries of the G20 will meet. Currently, about 500 million doses of the vaccine will be produced.

This amount is needed to meet the goal of vaccinating 40 percent of each country’s population by the end of the year.

There are currently 82 countries at risk of not achieving this goal. For about 75 percent of these countries, this is an undersupply problem. Others have some limitations that WHO is helping to address.

Speaking to reporters via video link, Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and currently WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing, said it would “A moral catastrophe of historic proportions” if the G20 countries cannot act quickly.

These countries have pledged to donate over 1.2 billion doses of vaccine COVAX… According to the WHO, so far only 150 million delivered.

As wealthy countries accumulate millions of unused doses close to expiration, Mr Brown said they should begin “immediate, massive, coordinated” air delivery of vaccines to low-income countries.

If they fail to do so, Mr. Brown argued, they will be guilty of “an economic misconduct that shames us all.”

Mr Brown also warned that “the longer inequalities exist in vaccines, the longer the virus will be present.”

Annette Kennedy, President of the International Council of Nursing (ICN), and Heidi Stensmiren, President of the World Medical Association (WMA), also spoke to reporters at the WHO weekly COVID-19 briefing.