“between 80,000 and 180,000” caregivers died between January 2020 and May 2021, according to the WHO

They have been on the front lines since the start of the epidemic and they have paid a heavy price. Of the 135 million healthcare professionals in the world, “between 80,000 and 180,000” died from Covid-19 between January 2020 and May 2021, according to the World Health Organization. “These estimates stem from the 3.45 million deaths linked to Covid-19 reported to the WHO in May 2021; a number which in itself turns out to be far lower than the actual number of deaths”, specified the organization in a report (in English) published Thursday, October 21.

According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, “It is essential that healthcare professionals be vaccinated as a priority. Data from 119 countries suggests that on average two in five healthcare professionals worldwide are fully immunized.”. “Of course”, this average masks huge differences between regions and economic groups.

“In Africa, less than one in ten health workers have been fully immunized. At the same time, in most high-income countries more than 80% of health workers are fully immunized.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

quoted by AFP

Faced with this observation, the WHO calls on all countries to ensure that all health professionals are vaccinated as a priority against Covid-19. “More than ten months after the approval of the first vaccines, the fact that millions of healthcare workers still have not been vaccinated is in itself a condemnation of the countries and companies that control the global vaccine supply.”, also said the head of the WHO. Tedros Adhanom ghebreyesus continues to denounce the inequity of vaccines and relentlessly asks countries with enough doses to share them, while the international Covax mechanism is slipping, for lack of sufficient vaccines.