According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 has had a serious impact on healthcare staff and may have claimed the lives of around 80,000 to 180,000 of them.

The deaths occurred from January last year through May of this year. WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that healthcare workers must be prioritized for vaccination. He criticized the disparity in the distribution of vaccines.

The world has an estimated 135 million healthcare workers and data obtained from 119 countries suggest that on average, two in five healthcare workers are fully vaccinated, said Dr Tedros. Less than one in 10 healthcare workers are fully vaccinated in Africa, compared to eight in 10 in high-income nations… (BBC, October 21, 2021)