More than 1 million people have been reported infected by the novel coronavirus across the world.
A total of 58,631 have died because of the pandemic, according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 200 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
Health care systems are straining under the surge of patients and a paucity of medical equipment like ventilators as well as protective masks and gloves, giving rise to growing concerns about the exposure of hospital personnel, The Associated Press reported (AP).
In the US, the number of people infected has now exceeded a quarter-million, with the death toll climbing past 7,000.
Meanwhile, Italy and Spain, the two worst-hit countries in Europe with combined deaths of more than 25,000 and nearly a quarter-million infections, have also reported a high percentage of infections among their health care workers.
Carlo Palermo, head of Italy’s hospital doctors’ union, fought tears as he told reporters in Rome of the physical risks and psychological trauma the outbreak is causing, noting reports that two nurses had committed suicide, AP reported.
“I can understand those who look death in the eye every day, who are on the front lines, who work with someone who maybe is infected, then a few days later you see him in the ICU or die," he said.
"It’s a indescribable condition of stress. Unbearable.”
