Personal protective equipment and Covid 19- a risk to healthcare staff?

The novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)1 has recently created a worldwide pandemic. With a death rate that is climbing rapidly, the disease has been declared a global emergency.2 A substantial number of healthcare workers tested positive for the disease in Italy, the epicentre of the European outbreak, particularly in its early stages. The number of positive healthcare workers was 10,627 with 34 deaths to date, representing a mortality rate of 0.3%,3 but the Italian authorities acknowledged that healthcare workers were over tested which may account for a lower mortality rate. The most worrying statistic is the rising number of deaths amongst healthcare professionals.4 There have already been seven healthcare staff deaths in the UK5 as of 5 April 2020. This has been postulated to be for a number of reasons and may be multifactorial.