Italy: 310 Healthcare Workers Infected with Coronavirus at One Hospital

ROME, ITALY - MARCH 26: Doctors treat COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit at the t
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Just one hospital in Italy has confirmed Chinese coronavirus infections in 310 healthcare workers, a report revealed on Friday.

Authorities revealed the deaths of five more doctors nationwide on Friday, bringing the nation’s overall coronavirus death toll among healthcare professionals to 46.

To date, 310 doctors and nurses are infected with the coronavirus at the Civile di Brescia hospital in Brescia, Italy, with ten of the cases considered to be “serious,” according to a report by La Repubblica.

All employees of the Civil Hospitals in Italy will have their temperature taken before entering the hospital, beginning on Friday morning, as directed by the general manager, Gianmarco Trivelli. Employees who have a fever will be sent home.

“I am worried, but compared to other hospitals, we can manage,” said Trivelli. “We immediately chose to close the internal canteen to reduce contacts.”

The report added that out of the hospitals 6,700 employees, the number of hospital staff infected with the virus represents six percent of its employees.

Meanwhile, five more doctors have died in Italy from the Wuhan coronavirus, bringing the nation’s overall death toll among healthcare workers to a total of 46, reports La Repubblica, which added that 6,414 healthcare workers are currently infected in Italy.

This means that of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy, one in ten of them are healthcare professionals.

Last week, a 57-year-old Italian doctor working without gloves due to a shortage at his hospital died of the virus.

“They’ve run out,” said the doctor of the glove shortage in one of his last interviews with the media before he succumbed to the Chinese virus.

On Friday, Italy hit its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, as 969 people have died in the last 24 hours alone, bringing the nation’s overall death toll to 9,134 – an increase of 11.9 percent in one day.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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