Pretoria - AT LEAST 17 000 health workers around the world have died of Covid19, or one every half an hour in the past year, Amnesty International said in a report.
The humanitarian agency collaborated with Public Services International (PSI) and UNI Global Union in compiling the report.
It was based on data published by governments, unions, media and civil society organisations, in more than 70 countries.
The organisations called for urgent action to speed up the vaccination of front-line health workers around the world, including those often ignored such as cleaners, community health workers and social care workers. The warning came as global inequalities in vaccine access continued to widen.
According to the groups, more than half the world’s doses have so far been administered in just 10 rich countries, making up less than 10% of the world’s population, while over 100 countries are yet to vaccinate a single person.
“For one health worker to die from Covid-19 every 30 minutes is both a tragedy and an injustice. Health workers all over the world have put their lives on the line to try and keep people safe from Covid-19, yet far too many have been left unprotected and paid the ultimate price. It’s time they were prioritised for life-saving vaccines. Urgent action must be taken to close the huge global inequalities in vaccine access,” said Steve Cockburn, head of economic and social justice at Amnesty International.
Unsafe working conditions and a lack of personal protective equipment have been some of the main issues faced by health workers worldwide, throughout the pandemic, especially in the early phases.
The human rights group called on governments to include all front-line workers in their vaccine distribution plans, as many poorer countries were expected to receive their first batches in the coming weeks and months.
Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union, said the deaths were horrific, catastrophic and reflected only a fraction of the pandemic’s real costs to care workers around the world.
“A virus does not differentiate between a surgeon and a nursing-home worker or home-care assistant, and neither should our approach to vaccinations, protective equipment and safety protocols for care workers exposed to Covid-19.”
FACING elections for the first time in 15 years, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is battling a growing rift within his powerful Fatah party that poses a new threat to his dominance over Palestinian politics.
A breakaway bid by one of Abbas’s party allies has intensified speculation he might cancel a presidential vote planned for July, fearing a potential challenge by Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader jailed by Israel. Abbas’s office denies he has plans to delay or scrap the presidential vote.
Barghouti, 61, was a driving force in Palestinians’ 2000-2005 uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was sentenced by an Israeli court in 2004 to life imprisonment after being convicted over multiple lethal attacks on Israelis by Palestinian militants. Barghouti has always denied the charges.
Abbas, 85, has ruled the Palestinian Authority (PA) in self-rule areas of the West Bank by decree for over a decade. In January, he announced presidential and legislative ballots – a move largely seen as a response to domestic and Western criticism of his presidency’s
democratic legitimacy. Adding to that criticism is Nasser al-Qudwa, a longtime member of Fatah’s top Central Committee who last week announced he was forming a new list that would run separately from Fatah in the legislative election, in May.
“(Palestinians) are fed up with … the absence of the rule of the law, the absence of equality, the absence of fairness,” said Qudwa, a nephew of late Fatah founder and Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat.
It is rare for leaders on the 19-member Central Committee members to publicly break with Abbas.
Qudwa, 67, said he hoped his list would be led by Barghouti, a Fatah leader long floated as a potential Abbas successor. Barghouti has not said if he will join the list or run in the presidential
ballot. But opinion polls suggest he would win comfortably against Abbas and leaders from Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza from Fatah in 2007. Aides to Abbas point to the split with Hamas as having contributed to the long delay in holding new elections.
Abbas has tried to resolve the discord by dispatching a loyalist to visit Barghouti in prison and, through emissaries, preaching party unity after Qudwa announced his new list.
Palestinian officials have privately questioned how Barghouti would contest the elections from prison and what would happen if he won. Any move to free him would likely ignite a political firestorm in Israel. The last Palestinians parliamentary ballot was in 2006.
African News Agency