Thread by @HeidiNBC

NEW to @NBCNews:

Health care workers see coming wave of coronavirus in their ranks
*Infections as high as 20% of total in some states*

w @S_Fitzpatrick
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/h… via @nbcnews

Disparities in testing and tracking in many states — and the lack of national data — make the actual infection rates among medical personnel difficult to pin down.

BUT

A physician at a NYC hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity said more than 20% of the hospital’s ..

staff could have COVID-19, including doctors, nurses and aides. “We are short of everything and everybody.”

“As an American, I feel ashamed,” the doctor told NBC News, emphasizing a belief that the lack of PPE supplies has contributed to the transmission to health care workers.

This rate is in line with Italy's hard-hit Lombardy region, where the 20 percent of health care professionals have become infected, according to a recent update in the medical journal The Lancet.

--In Conn., some 200 nurses are in quarantine due to a lack of testing, Healthline

reported.
--In Washington state, dozens of staffers at a nursing home tested positive for the coronavirus
--In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 160 employees of Berkshire Medical Center have been quarantined due to exposure to the virus.