Doctors and nurses account for up to 20% of US coronavirus cases, CDC says
Health care professionals make up about 20% of confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC researched 49,000 coronvavirus cases between Feb. 12 and April 9 and found that 9,300 of them, 19%, involved health care workers, according to the Associated Press.
Data the CDC released Tuesday indicates 27 health care professionals of those 49,000 died of coronavirus as of last week, the AP reported. It should be noted that the data varies because of inconsistent reporting.
But data from 12 states that reported information on medical professionals with COVID-19 more consistently shows health care professionals made up about 11% of confirmed coronavirus cases, the AP said.
The CDC’s report indicated most of the cases were white women in their 40s, according to The Washington Post.
Women made up the vast majority of cases at 73%, according to The Hill. Many of the infected professionals — about 38% — had underlying health conditions, and most of those who died from COVID-19 were 65 years or older, The Hill reported.
The report likely under counts the number of cases among medical professionals because of a lack of testing in a given region, The Post reported. There are also a number of institutions that are not testing health care workers in order to reserve tests for patients, according to The Post.
The risk to workers is emphasized by the fact that more than half of infected health care professionals came in contact with coronavirus patients at work, The Hill reported. The problem will most likely worsen, especially considering the nationwide shortage in personal protective equipment, according to The Hill.
“These findings underscore the heightened covid-19 transmission risk associated with prolonged, unprotected patient contact,” the CDC wrote, according to The Post. Early recognition and prompt isolation of infected patients is critical to “preserve the health care workforce in the face of an outbreak already straining the U.S. health care system,” according to the CDC’s report, The Post said.