WHO: Up to 180,000 since the start of the pandemic health care workers may have died from COVID-19

“These deaths are a tragic loss and an irreparable gap in the world’s response to the epidemic,” the World Health Organization said in a statement. The organization called on national governments to “redouble their efforts to protect and support health workers as the next wave of the epidemic escalates.”

The World Health Organization has said that health care workers are given priority in immunization programs in many countries, but inequality in access to vaccines means that on average worldwide only two out of five doctors and support staff are vaccinated.

Data from 119 countries released by WHO shows that less than one in ten health workers in Africa and the Western Pacific have been fully vaccinated. In 22 higher-income countries, more than 80% of health workers have been vaccinated.

The World Health Organization commented that the infection and death rates from SARS-Cov-2 have decreased among health care workers, but the world still has no reason to be satisfied.