The economic impact of healthcare worker infections and deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to a loss of R5.8 billion in the Western Cape and R9.5bn in KwaZulu-Natal.
This is contained in a joint research report by the World Bank and Resolve to Save, titled Economic Burden of Covid-19 Infections among Health Care Workers (HCW).
The findings called for investment in policies and resources for more productive societies worldwide.
Classified as low and middle income countries – Kenya, Colombia, Eswatini and South Africa with a focus on the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal – were studied.
According to the report, these countries’ failure to protect health workers in the first year of the pandemic resulted in enormous societal costs, which were preventable.
Colombia’s economic loss was $423.86m (nearly R7.5bn), Eswatini $16.19m, Kenya $113.20m, Western Cape $337.91m and $544.64m in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Healthcare workers were more likely to become infected and die of complications than the general population. In Kenya they were almost 10 times more likely to be infected and in the two provinces of South Africa, the risk was 7 to 8 times higher. In Colombia, infection rates did not vary greatly between healthcare workers and the rest of the population, resulting in a lower burden. The economic burden of healthcare workers infection was heaviest in the countries that had low worker density and most severely affected by staff shortages,” said the report.
It stated that the heaviest costs were associated with secondary infections and excess maternal and child deaths.
“The costs of onward viral transmission outweighed those associated with direct healthcare workers infections, ranging from 13% of total economic costs linked to workers infections in Kenya to 70% in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Increases in maternal and child deaths arising from severe disruptions to essential services such as maternity and under 5 care accounted for 82% of total costs in Kenya where pre-pandemic mortality levels were already high against 12% in Columbia and 4% in the Western Cape,” it said.
Global director for health, nutrition and population, Juan Pablo Uribe, said: “Health workers are fundamental to global health security and yet they often lack even basic protections against infectious disease. Countries and health institutions need to prioritise the protection of healthcare workers with increased investments to avoid deaths, secondary infections and enormous costs for society at large.”
Western Cape Health Department spokesperson Mark van der Heever said the department had a number of infection prevention control measures in place before Covid-19 and these were strengthened during the pandemic.
“A number of other interventions were also put in place to ensure the safety of the health workforce. While it was not possible to guarantee a zero risk to front line staff, all efforts were made to ensure staff safety. This remained a partnership between management and staff. The introduction of the vaccines for healthcare workers, when it became available, also contributed to safeguarding many of our staff against becoming severely ill.
“In addition, healthcare workers who were at high risk were shifted to safer clinical areas. Staff exposed to Covid-19 were immediately screened and tested and the necessary quarantine measures were followed. This quarantine period was also subsequently reduced as prescribed by the National Department of Health,” he said.
Cape Times