Italy confirms 61 doctors have died after contracting coronavirus
In Italy, 61 doctors have died after contracting coronavirus, the Italian Association of Doctors confirmed on Monday.
A total of 8,358 health workers have tested positive for the virus, according to the Italian National Institute of Health.
Out of the 61 dead, 40 were working in the worst-hit region of Lombardy.
Italy’s National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists released a list of names of the dead doctors on Sunday alongside a blistering attack on the lack of personal protective equipment for medical workers.
“The dead do not make a noise. Yet, the names of our dead friends, our colleagues, put here in black and white, make a deafening noise,” the association’s president, Filippo Anelli, said in a statement reported by The Independent.
Italy has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world at 10,779 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
And with more than 97,000 cases of the virus, it is likely to soon become the second country in the world to break the 100,000 mark, after the US.
In Britain, one in four doctors are off sick or isolating, according to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the RCP, said: “At the moment, we think it’s more doctors self-isolating with family members, though there are some off sick themselves.
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“This is really impacting a lot in emergency departments and London is in a much worse position than elsewhere at the moment, but it will come to other places. Birmingham is also struggling.”
Amged El-Hawrani became the first frontline NHS worker to die after contracting coronavirus on Saturday.
The 55-year-old associate clinical director and consultant at Queen’s Hospital Burton had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease associated with the virus, the trust said.
