China's problem is not as the number of coronavirus victims increases, but it faces a major problem of hundreds of its medical staff being infected with the deadly virus.
Beijing said Friday that six members of the medical teams died of the coronavirusand 1,716 others were infected, AFP reported.
The figure highlighted the risks faced by hospital medical staff, particularly with the shortage of masks and protective clothing.
Cnn reported earlier that hundreds of Chinese medical personnel had been infected by the virus.
A nurse in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Corona virus, estimated that dozens of medical staff at a city hospital were infected with the virus.
The nurse, who preferred to use the pseudonym Ning Zhu because she was not authorized to speak to the media, explained that she had been quarantined in her home after a medical examination indicated that she might have contracted the virus.
She added that it is now a real problem for the hospital where she works, as more than 100 hospital workers are under quarantine on suspicion of contracting the virus, while 30 others have confirmed that they have been infected with the deadly virus that has infected 60,000 people around the world.
Government underestimation
This shows that Beijing faces a major problem in the midst of its raging war with the deadly virus that has claimed hundreds of lives.
During the first weeks of the outbreak, the Chinese authorities repeatedly stressed that no health-care workers had been infected with Corona infection, indicating that the disease was not as contagious as many believed.
The nurse's nickname was not the only one of its kind. Another nurse working at Wuhan Central Hospital wrote on Sina Weibo a Chinese microblogging website, similar to Twitter, that 150 of her colleagues were either suspected or confirmed to have the deadly virus, including herself.
Wuhan, in central China, has 398 hospitals and about 6,000 community clinics, but HIV patients have been transferred to only about 9 hospitals.
Widespread infections in China
Chinese health authorities did not disclose the number of infected among health care workers as of Friday, according to CNN, which noted that Beijing had not responded to his request in recent days.
According to CNN, there are testimonies from Chinese doctors that a number of medical staff have been infected with the virus in other parts of China outside Wuhan, noting that the number of infections among them may be in the hundreds.
Chinese authorities later reported injuries among paramedics in three areas, including Beijing.
Health-care workers have long faced the risk of infection during outbreaks of viruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic that swept China from late 2002 to 2003.
However, the risk appears to be greater with the coronavirus, due to the severe shortage of medicines, as well as the government's belated warning of a high rate of infection.
Prevention measures are limited
It is difficult for the Chinese authorities to reveal the death toll of coronavirus patients among medical workers, said Ivan Hung, head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the University of Hong Kong.
"I think they will start to announce the numbers within two or three months. Now, it may cause a lot of chaos," he added.
He pointed out that the tools used by medical teams such as masks are not sufficient to deal with the virus, noting that they should wear protective suits, not only in isolation wards, but in all other departments in hospitals, including emergency departments.
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