Filipino nurses have long worked in New York City hospitals, and a number of studies have revealed how the coronavirus affected them during the first months of the US epidemic.
Analysis by ProPublica found that at least 30 Filipino health workers in the New York City area had died from the virus in June.
And one survey published in September by National Nurses United, the largest union of nurses in the United States, went on to find that 67 Filipino nurses had died from Covid-19. That figure, which was taken from public obituaries, represents about a third of the total registered nurses who have died nationwide, although Filipinos make up just 4% of those nurses overall.
“It’s really heartbreaking,” said Zenei Cortez, president of National Nurses United and a nurse from the Philippines herself. She also fears that the real toll will be worse. “The numbers we produce are all underreported, I’m sure.”
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Now another wave of infections has arrived. The rate of infection in New York has increased in recent weeks and hospitalizations are increasing; more than 450 New Yorkers have died from Covid since the start of 2021.
Many nurses working in hospitals are better prepared this time around: they know how and when to use ventilators, for example. They are also given priority to receive the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which have been shown to be very effective.
But it will be weeks before New York hospital staff are fully immunized. In the meantime, nurses at several city hospitals have warned of the lack of protective equipment. And some hospitals are relaunching coronavirus units that became a necessity last spring.
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