More than 50 doctors in Italy have reportedly died due to complications from coronavirus as the country continues to struggle with the massive impact caused by the pandemic.
A total of 51 doctors who tested positive for COVID-19 have succumbed to the disease as of Friday, according to CNN, citing the Italian Association of Doctors. Filippo Anelli, president of the association, had recently called for doctors in the country to be provided with more personal protective equipment (PPE), noting that the possibly preventable deaths have taken a heavy toll on the profession.
“The first thing to do is to protect healthcare workers, to make sure they are not the ones spreading the virus. Our doctors have been sent to war unarmed,” Anelli told The Financial Times in a Thursday article.
“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.”
Italy has the highest COVID-19 death toll of any country in the world, with over 10 percent of cases resulting in death so far.
Out of over 86,000 cases in the country as of Friday, there were over 9,100 deaths and almost 11,000 recoveries.
At least 6,414 health care workers in Italy have reportedly contracted the virus.
Thousands of additional workers attempting to treat the virus around the world have also fallen ill, with lack of adequate PPE often cited as a factor in the workers becoming infected.
Source: Newsweek