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In less than 24 hours, 1,490 new cases of coronavirus have been registered among healthcare professionals. In total, there are already 5,400, which represents about 13% of all infected in Spain, which today are close to 40,000. "The data is worrisome", especially considering that "the staff of doctors was in deficit before starting Covid-19. We are not going to be able to invent another resource that can replace these professionals, " explains Angela Hernández Puente, Deputy Secretary General of the Association of Doctors and Graduates of Madrid (Amyts), the city in the world where the coronavirus progresses the fastest.

This increase of 1,490 cases in a single day represents almost 40% compared to yesterday. In other words, the number of coronaviruses among health personnel has practically doubled. We even beat our neighboring country, Italy, where the percentage of those affected in the health sector is 8%. Why might Spain be one of the nations (if not the most) with the most infected professionals?

Without a doubt, the lack of Personal Protective Equipment is key. This would be, at a basic level: an FP2 or FP3 mask, a waterproof gown that covers the entire body, nitrile gloves and protective glasses. SUSPENSE. " Health personnel are being asked to go to the homes only with a mask (surgical, not FP2) and gloves and this is not what international guidelines and the World Health Organization (WHO) collect," says the expert. "Unfortunately, the means of protection continue to be in short supply."

It is also the complaint of many of the professionals who serve in almost monographic Covid-19 hospitals. "They are missing the waterproof gowns, the nitrile gloves, the adequate masks, even the surgical ones in some centers ... And we have to give assistance, we cannot refuse," says Victoria Velasco, delegate for prevention of labor resources at Amyts.

The shortage of these teams is extensible to the rest of the autonomous communities. "We receive complaints from other regions. There are cases that are not tolerable," said this specialist. For example, at the time of reporting deaths in homes. "The body is highly contagious. This virus is transmitted by air and by contact. It cannot be that there are no masks or gowns." Not only "we are exposing ourselves too much", but "not being protected, we are a transmission vector" and that must be taken into account.

Fernando Simón, director of the Center for Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health, acknowledged on Tuesday "specific" difficulties in accessing protection material. "In Spain, from the first moment we had two or three outbreaks of infection that affected transmission among health personnel. This fact had a significant impact on the number of infected to date. It is true that access to equipment Personal protection in some points has been critical, since the provisioning of this equipment is a problem of access to the global market. Today, this problem is being solved, but there is no global availability. "

After all the regional unions are reporting a lack of material for their professionals, the State Confederation of Medical Trade Unions (CESM) has filed a complaint in the Administrative Courtroom of the Supreme Court requesting precautionary measures "unheard of part" against the Ministry of Health given the health emergency situation that we are experiencing due to the COVID19 pandemic. As stated by this organization in a statement, "we state that the recommendations of the WHO and the Ministry of Health are clear in order to the need to provide health professionals with a set of measures and elements necessary for them to perform their work in minimum safety conditions and not see themselves infected by the patients or increase the risk that they suffer, and avoid the spread of the disease. " In this way, CESM requests that "without further formalities and within a period of five days, an order be issued by which, with the total estimate of the complaint, the precautionary measures be agreed to require the defendant Administration to provide urgently and immediately, within 24 hours, in all public or private healthcare centers of the material described above. "

The two experts consulted by this newspaper show the clear problem in this regard, especially in the Community of Madrid, which is greatly affected by the coronavirus. However, the lack of protective equipment would not be the only reason to explain the high percentage of infected among health personnel. According to Hernández Puente, "when we were carrying out the first tests on contacts from Wuhan or other transmitting countries, the virus was probably already circulating among us. We went behind and continued to go behind ."

Only starting on March 12, health professionals began to be tested and, however, "they are not reaching everyone and those who manage to gain access, sometimes do not know the result until eight days later. To solve this situation," Three weeks ago we asked for a telephone for health personnel to be enabled and specific circuits for the diagnostic test (PCR). "It is about knowing as soon as possible whether you are positive or not so that you can return to work.

Solutions must be sought. "It is not a war situation, but an epidemic in which the management must be done according to the developed country that we are," says Hernández Puente. If we continue with these numbers of infections among health personnel, "the population will be affected in terms of our ability to care for them and, in the long run, professionals will suffer collateral damage from accumulated stress and fatigue. It will cost us "

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