Infected healthcare workers: “it’s a virus of opportunity” – Dr François Marquis

The coronavirus hit healthcare workers very hard, as nearly 17,000 of them were infected during the first wave.

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“These people are in extremely specific sectors. There have been floors where there have been outbreaks, there have been CHSLDs where there have been outbreaks. Naturally, the staff were touched, ”explains Dr François Marquis.

What explains why they represent a quarter of all cases? For the head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital, we cannot show a single factor.

The lack of protective equipment and the displacement of staff in several establishments were definitely detrimental.

“As we have said, it is a virus of opportunity. It suffices that there have been a lot of personnel changes with a lack of equipment and boom, ”he says.

“It could be someone who wanted to cheer up and shared food with their work team and boom, during that time, those five minutes when people let their guard down, the virus went through. there, ”adds the intensivist.

According to him, simple forgetting can have big consequences. “Someone who did a bad hand washing and who contaminated a tool that everyone uses,” he exemplifies.

He assures that institutions have learned a lot in recent months and that the number of cases in health personnel has greatly decreased.