New data reveals that nearly 600 frontline healthcare workers appear to have died from COVID-19. That is substantially more than the number (368) provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which acknowledged its total was an undercount, according to Kaiser Health News.
The newly released figure, 586, includes nursing home workers, janitors and other healthcare support staff, along with doctors, nurses and paramedics. The new number comes from Lost on the Frontline, a joint project of The Guardian and Kaiser Health News. A majority of those deceased were people of color — mostly African American and Asian/Pacific Islander.
Besides tabulating deaths, the Guardian/Kaiser project analyzed healthcare workers’ difficulties during the pandemic. Those challenges included overusing masks as a result of equipment shortages, using trash bags as personal protective equipment, and intolerance by employers when workers became infected. Alabama nursing home nurse Rose Harrison is among the victims already profiled.
Last Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled initial nursing home infection and death rates, as reported by nearly 90% of facilities that are Medicaid- or Medicare-certified. At that time, nearly 450 long-term care worker deaths were reported; that number is expected to grow as the breadth of reporting expands.
Meanwhile, data from Johns Hopkins University reveals that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus passed 110,000 on Sunday, while the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the U.S. neared 2 million.
The number of cases could spike following protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, according to Anthony Fauci, a top member of the White House coronavirus task force.
