A committee of experts, headed by Dr VK Paul from Niti Aayog has prepared a report revealing that till date 2,324 healthcare workers are affected by the novel coronavirus in the capital. The report was submitted on Tuesday to Delhi Disaster Management Authority.

Out of the affected healthcare staff, 23% were doctors, 34% were nurses, 15% were paramedics, 18% were Group-D staff and 10% were other employees. Also, 75 healthcare workers, which includes 14 doctors, had died due to COVID-19. The report did not give separate statistics for government and private facilities.

The committee has advised the government to undertake all the necessary efforts to prevent coronavirus infection in hospitals and pathology laboratories and also among field workers who are engaged in conducting surveys in containment zones. It stated the rising mortality in healthcare workers is harmful to maintain the morale of the COVID warriors.

In Lok Nayak Hospital, a source said that the infection rate among healthcare workers was negligible and only three staff, including one doctor, had died till now. The protection of healthcare workers who are fighting the virus on the front line is of highest importance along with the recovery of patients and it depends on their health. One of the officials at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital said that no healthcare worker had died and only one security guard had died due to COVID-19.

Health minister Satyendar Jain said that the healthcare workers are the pillars in the government’s fight against COVID-19. The AAP government has always kept the health, protection from the infection, psycho-social support on high priority of all healthcare workers. He further said that they are the country’s only government to offer Rs 1 crore compensation to the relatives of deceased healthcare staff.

The committee of experts has suggested providing healthcare workers proper safety gear, fortnightly shift followed by quarantine, periodic refresher training, monitoring infection rate on a weekly basis, psycho-social counselling and regular audit of facilities, that should include hospitals and laboratories. Delhi government has regularly provided healthcare workers and field workers adequate and quality safety gear. Also, training is periodically organised for their protection from infection.

Source: ET Healthworld