The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said, on Thursday, that over 41,000 health workers have been infected with the coronavirus in Africa.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, made the statement to mark this year’s World Patient Safety Day with the theme, ‘Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety.”
Moeti said, “In the WHO African Region, more than 41,000 health workers have been infected with COVID-19, accounting for 3.8 per cent of all reported cases. Some countries, like Sierra-Leone and Cote d’Ivoire have made progress in reducing the proportion of health worker infections. Others such as Eritrea, Rwanda and Seychelles have not recorded a single case of COVID-19 among health workers.
“To protect health workers from COVID-19 and contribute to enhanced patient safety, in collaboration with partners and national and provincial authorities, WHO has trained more than 50,000 health workers in the African Region in infection prevention and control, with plans to train over 200,000 more.”
Moeti also called for collaborative efforts to protect health workers in order to enable them protect patients, in supportive, enabling environments for the delivery of quality health care.
