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WASHINGTON – Insults, beatings, arrests: Health workers battling the coronavirus were subjected to more than 400 acts of violence related to COVID-19 worldwide in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by an NGO from Health.
The Coalition to Safeguard Health in Conflict released an interactive map showing 1,172 violent acts and attacks that occurred against health workers or facilities last year, “a minimal estimate,” according to the NGO.
More than a third (412) of the acts are directly related to COVID-19, he said, citing several examples, including in Mexico, where a nurse was attacked and injured by a group who accused her of spreading the virus.
In Dakar, residents threw stones at three social workers who refused to allow a coronavirus victim to be buried near their homes.
In Birmingham, England, a neighbor spat and insulted a healthcare worker.
The vast majority, 80 percent, of the perpetrators of the violence were civilians, but the threats also came from public authorities.
In Egypt, health workers who criticized the regime’s handling of the pandemic were arrested by security forces and charged with spreading false information and belonging to a terrorist group.
Insecurity Insight, which developed the interactive map, also recorded 802 attacks in countries at war or against victims of civil conflict, such as the bombing of hospitals in Yemen and the kidnapping of doctors in Nigeria.
“The map shows that violence and intimidation against healthcare was a true global crisis in 2020, affecting 79 countries,” Insecurity Insight Director Christina Wille said in a statement.
Leonard Rubenstein, president and founder of Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition and professor at Johns Hopkins University, called on international governments to protect healthcare workers, including by fighting misinformation. – French Media Agency