U.N. News: Protect health workers to save patients, WHO reiterates on World Patient Safety Day
“COVID-19 has reminded the world of the vital role health workers play in relieving suffering and saving lives, the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) has said, underlining the need to ensure their safety and protection. ‘No country, hospital, or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe,’ said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general. Towards that end, to ensure health workers have the safe working conditions, training, pay, and respect they deserve, the U.N. health agency released the Health Worker Safety Charter, on Thursday, coinciding with the World Patient Safety Day…” (9/17).

Washington Post: Health-care workers make up 1 in 7 covid-19 cases recorded globally, WHO says
“Health-care workers account for 1 in 7 coronavirus cases recorded by the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency said this week. ‘Globally, around 14 percent of covid-19 cases reported to WHO are among health workers, and in some countries it’s as much as 35 percent,’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva. The figures are disproportionate: Data collected by the WHO suggest that health workers represent less than 3 percent of the population in the majority of countries and less than 2 percent in almost all low- and middle-income countries…” (Mellen/Taylor, 9/17).

Additional coverage on health worker safety and impacts from the pandemic is available from Axios, Financial Times, Fox News, The Lancet, and VOA News.