U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals the high risk of COVID-19 for healthcare staff, especially nurses. The new report on hospitalized patients has explained this risk in detail.
This report has been released this Monday after the new cases of coronavirus have been recorded showing some of the states are badly hit by the virus. It states that nearly 6% of the adults that were hospitalized from March to May are mainly healthcare workers and more than 1/3rd of them were nurses.
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Nearly 27% of these healthcare workers were shifted to the intensive care units and 4% of them lost their lives because of complications.
This data is obtained from the 6,760 cases of hospitalizations that were reported from 13 states that also include Ohio California, Tennessee, and New York.
Health workers can exhibit extreme coronavirus symptoms hence they also need specialized care, infection prevention strategies, and control measures in the healthcare units and community. It will not only save them from contracting the virus but also control the virus to spread to other members of a community.
Ever since this pandemic started in the US, healthcare staff was among the first persons who were exposed to these patients. In the initial months of the pandemic, there was a huge shortage of safety equipment including personal protective equipment (PPE), face masks, and even sanitizers. It was soon overcome but supplies were still affected in many far away areas where daily COVID-19 cases are being reported.
Not only these areas need more and faster testing facilities but also a continuous supply of safety equipment for the protection of healthcare staff especially nurses. Many health experts are calling these findings as ‘not surprising’ and some of them even blamed the federal units for not stating appropriate and effective guidelines at the start of this pandemic. In the United States, more than 2000 health workers have lost their lives to the coronavirus and thousands of others are still at a risk.
This new report urges the need for rapid testing for healthcare staff so that the positive patients are recognized, isolated, and provided with the necessary treatment. It will only save other healthcare staff members from catching the virus. Whereas the requirement of the protective gear remains still significant.
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Health experts urge hospitals to be prepared for new cases. Even when the staff members are following the improved plans and precautions during the last few months, there are still many of them who are at higher risk of coronavirus. For example, those who have diabetes, hypertension, or are pregnant are highly risky.
Among those who have been tested positive, the majority of nurses got it directly from the COVID-19 patients. There is no way to determine if these individuals got this virus from their workplace or through community settings. Still, this study shows an increased risk for the healthcare staff members as the high-risk group for coronavirus.
Surprisingly, most of the nurses who were hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 were women. Many of them were old and Black which reveals that probably gender and ethnicity have more to add to COVID-19 risk than profession alone.
