Protecting Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Outbreak - Essay Example

The world is facing serious challenges in the healthcare sector due to COVID-19 pandemic. All over the world, various governments have come up with different measures to help them curb the spread of the virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over fourteen million infections, and over six hundred deaths that have been reported worldwide. The United States of America has been hit hardest, with over three million infections and over one hundred and forty thousand deaths. Corona Virus affects not only the health of people, but also their livelihoods. Governments all over the world have adopted restrictive measures to curb movement, which hinders economic activities. Various governments around the world have adopted various containment measures to curb the spread of the Corona Virus. Some of the measures include imposing lockdown procedures and limiting the number of people in a single gathering. However, these measures do not seem to have worked as the number of infections continues to grow. Some of the proposed policies that can be adopted to help control further spread of the virus is by improving local manufacture of medical supplies instead of importing, equipping the healthcare workers with the necessary training and incorporating the use of technology to help identify COVID-19 patients early enough.

Since the Corona Virus is a respiratory virus, once it attacks an individual, it develops difficulty breathing. For this reason, the individual is placed on a ventilator to help them breathe. Ventilators play an important role in the fight against the Corona Virus and should thus be easily accessible to all patients. Most countries have an acute shortage of ventilators and have problems helping the COVID-19 patients stabilize (Ranney, Griffeth, & Jha, 2020). The shortage of ventilators is mainly attributed to the fact that most countries get their supply of ventilators from imports. Many countries around the world shut down their borders and banned international flights. This meant that most suppliers were blocked from getting into countries. Medical supplies were part of the goods that were blocked from accessing various countries. Some governments reconsidered the decision to allow medical supplies to get into the countries to help them fight the Corona Virus. Governments spend a lot of money to acquire ventilators from other countries. This is a good way to get this critical equipment. However, they can do better by empowering their local industries to produce more ventilators to meet the local demand. Governments can give proper guidelines to guide how the locally made ventilators can be made to function and help fight the virus. Ventilators should be readily available to help every country efficiently fight Corona Virus, and provide patients with the much-needed care that they need to stay alive. By empowering the local industries to produce ventilators, countries will have moved a step forward in the fight against the Corona Virus.

Health care workers also play an important role in the fight against the Corona Virus. The health workers are considered frontline workers against Corona Virus and therefore need to be well trained and equipped. In recent weeks, the number of healthcare workers infected by the Corona Virus has greatly increased. Corona Virus is very contagious, and anyone handling an infected person needs to take the necessary precautions to ensure that they don’t contract it. Health care workers handle Corona Virus patients and need personal protective equipment (World Health Organization, 2020). Most countries have the challenge of equipping their healthcare workers with personal protective equipment. Personal protective equipment is also outsourced from other countries and is not adequately supplied. Every country should increase the number of personal protective equipment available to their health care workers by engaging local manufacturers to produce more. Having more locally made personal protective equipment will help the health care workers perform better in handling COVID-19 patients, and reduce the death rates. However, caution should be taken when licensing manufacturers who will produce personal protective equipment. Governments should put measures to ensure that the personal protective equipment meets the international standards on protective gear since faulty protective equipment will further aid the spread of the virus. When countries invest more in making personal protective equipment locally rather than importing, they will be able to save on importation costs. The funds can be channeled towards making more kits locally. More personal protective equipment will translate to better handling of patients and a better chance of winning the war against Corona Virus.

Different countries have come up with different healthcare guidelines and how their healthcare workers are trained. Corona Virus has presented various countries with a big challenge in handling the Corona Virus as it has become difficult to contain. Since the healthcare workers are taking the lead role in tackling the virus, they should have proper knowledge of the virus and the various means that can be used to counteract its effects (Schwartz, King & Yen, 2020). The World Health Organization came up with various guidelines that healthcare workers should use when handling COVID-19 patients. Every government has to educate and train the healthcare workers on the required procedures recommended by WHO. When the healthcare workers are well equipped with information on how to handle patients and various precautionary procedures, the rate of infection among the healthcare workers will reduce and increase the chances of winning against the Corona Virus.

Some countries also face the challenge of having inadequate health care workers. The Corona Virus has compounded the problem in many healthcare systems around the world. Governments need to invest more money in hiring qualified healthcare workers to help fight the Corona Virus better. In some countries, health care workers are not well compensated, and during this tough time when they put their lives in the line for the sake of others. Healthcare workers need to well-compensated, and special care packages advanced to them during this pandemic to help motivate them to do better in serving their countries.

Technology can be used to help fight the Coronavirus effectively. Drones can be used to identify people that have possibly been infected by the Coronavirus. The drones are fitted with thermal sensors that can measure many people's temperature in a given area (Skorup, & Haaland, 2020). This will help various countries quickly identify hotspots early enough and move quickly to contain further spread of the virus. Therefore, governments need to invest more in technological solutions to contain the spread of the Corona Virus more effectively.

Corona Virus has disrupted how people live and conduct their business. A lot of things have changed, and the effect can be seen worldwide. Coronavirus needs to be contained and completely eradicated as soon as possible if things are to go back to normal. Governments across the world have a major role in curbing the further spread of the Corona Virus. Governments should invest more in local manufacturing industries to increase the supply of ventilators and personal protective equipment, increase the number of healthcare workers, and invest in a technological solution to fight the Corona Virus. Corona Virus can be contained and eradicated, only if the government will consider implementing better strategies.

Reference

Skorup, B., & Haaland, C. (2020). How Drones Can Help Fight the Coronavirus. Mercatus Center Research Paper Series, Special Edition Policy Brief (2020).

World Health Organization. (2020). Rational use of personal protective equipment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19): interim guidance, 27 February 2020 (No. WHO/2019-nCov/IPCPPE_use/2020.1). World Health Organization.

Schwartz, J., King, C. C., & Yen, M. Y. (2020). Protecting healthcare workers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak: lessons from Taiwan’s severe acute respiratory syndrome response. Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Ranney, M. L., Griffeth, V., & Jha, A. K. (2020). Critical supply shortages—the need for ventilators and personal protective equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(18), e41.