Are our healthcare workers safe during the coronavirus pandemic?
US battles with coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic seems to hit health care workers harder than it affects others according to experts.
"There's nothing more destabilising than health care workers falling ill'', said Dr Peter Hotez, the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Also read: COVID-19: Donald Trump and his virus expert give contrasting statements about American response
"We know the high mortality in older people, but for reasons that we don't understand front-line health care workers are at great risk for serious illness despite their younger age," he added.
Earlier, federal officials urged healthcare workers to switch from respirator face masks to looser surgical ones, a move that raised alarm among doctors and nurses who said they will now be less protected when treating highly infectious coronavirus patients.
Last weekend, American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) said two doctors suffering from the coronavirus were in critical condition: a Washington physician in his 40s and a 70-year-old in Patterson, New Jersey.
It wasn't ascertained whether the Washington doctor contracted the illness through work or community spread, but he complied with all relevant protocols, as per the college.
The New Jersey doctor, an emergency preparedness specialist, was admitted to a hospital with upper respiratory issues and was isolated in an intensive care unit as of Saturday, the AECP said.
US health officials have begunthefirst human trial of the coronavirus outbreak in Seattle.
The virus has claimed more than 7,000 victims around the world.