Covid-19 and Healthcare Workers

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Anchor lead: Data are accumulating on infection and death relative to Covid-19 among healthcare workers, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Even with personal protective equipment, a recent Lancet study reports that healthcare workers are more than three times as likely to contract Covid-19 as people who don’t work in healthcare, while death rates are disturbingly high also. Patricia Davidson, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, says more intensive study is needed.

Davidson: One of the things that has been very troublesome to many people around the world has been the number of healthcare worker deaths. More than that is how little we know about the numbers of people that have died. In nursing homes there’s been about 767 deaths reported amongst healthcare workers. I think this is a time where we really need to look at our occupational health and safety models, to make sure our healthcare workers are protected.  :30

Davidson notes that procedures for donning and doffing protective equipment, especially in taking it off, need greater scrutiny, with those institutions that are vigilant keeping risks lower. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.