Thousands of American doctors and nurses have gotten sick caring for Covid-19 patients, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
Of an estimated 62,344 health care professionals who have contracted the disease, at least 291 have died, said the CDC.
And these numbers are likely higher in reality, since the agency only has death status data for a little over half of cases it has information on. Many reports on cases also don’t include whether the person worked in health care, meaning there are probably cases left out of this count.
The last time the CDC highlighted the number of cases among health care workers was on April 15. At that time, the number of infected health care workers was 9,282 — a fraction of what it is now.
Health care workers around the country have also complained for months that they do not have enough access to protective equipment.
