The novel coronavirus has killed more than 100 health workers in Mexico, authorities said Monday, prompting continued concerns about the pandemic’s deadly toll on the country’s relatively small hospital workforce. Hot spots around the world have also reported alarming fatalities in front-line personnel, but Mexico has far fewer doctors and nurses per capita than hard-hit countries such as Spain and Italy, The Washington Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan reported. About half of all Mexicans rely on the Social Security Institute, a large, federally run health network, which employed 45 percent of those who died. Although hospital beds and ventilators remain far from capacity, Mexicans have worried that spreading outbreaks in hospitals and a lack of protective equipment could impair their country’s pandemic response. Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s assistant health secretary, said Monday that fatalities so far have included 66 doctors, 16 nurses and 29 other hospital staff, including employees such as lab technicians.

Source: Washington Post May 12, 2020 04:19 UTC