A new report reveals that at least 4100 health and social care workers have died from COVID19 in Europe. The report adds to a growing call from trade unions, civil society organisations and many others to speed up the vaccination of millions of frontline health workers around the world.

EPSU General Secretary, Jan Willem Goudriaan commented: “Health and social care workers have often been unprotected and their demands and concerns have been ignored. Governments should now recognise COVID19 as an occupational disease. We also call on the EU to support the waiver of the intellectual property rights on vaccines to allow more countries to produce them so health and social care workers first and then all of us can be vaccinated”

EPSU and affiliated unions contributed to the European data in the report. The figure states that 4112 workers have died in Europe, but this is a gross underestimation as not all countries are included. Unions and others fear that there is under reporting as well. In some countries, such as Germany and the UK, almost half of the workers who died were workers in care homes and social care (73 out of 143, and 439 out of 931 respectively). The report has an interactive map that allows you to see the data for your country. If not covered, please do not hesitate to send us more information Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.. Please note, the data methodology does not allow for comparisons between countries.