Over 1,000 nurses worldwide have died of COVID-19

More than a thousand nurses are known to have died worldwide due to COVID-19, the International Council of Nurses says, adding that the true figure was likely far higher.

The ICN brands the situation “catastrophic” and lambastes governments for not doing enough to protect front-line health care workers during the new coronavirus pandemic.

The Geneva-based federation brings together more than 130 national nursing associations (NNAs), representing the more than 20 million nurses worldwide.

An ICN survey finds that in countries where separate data for nurses was available, more than 1,000 had died from the respiratory disease.

“As of August 14, the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 deaths in nurses in 44 countries is 1,097,” the ICN says in a report.

“As our dataset only covers 44 countries with recorded nurse deaths, ICN believes the number significantly underestimates the situation.”

It says there had been 351 COVID-19-related deaths among nurses in Brazil as of August 11 — the highest figure in the dataset — and 212 in Mexico, according to the latest figures.

Broadening out from nurses, the human rights organization Amnesty International said on September 3 that at least 7,000 health care workers of all types had died worldwide after contracting COVID-19.

The ICN report says there is still no global systematic record of the number of nurses and other health workers who have contracted or died from the disease.

— AFP