Nearly a third of Spain’s nurses, who are on the front lines of one of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, could be infected with COVID-19, according to a survey done by a professional body for the group.

The results of an online questionnaire from the Collegial Organization of Nursing published on Tuesday indicated that around 70,000 of the country’s 255,000 nurses could be infected. Of the more than 7,500 nurses who responded to the survey, 27.9% reported having COVID-19 symptoms, or having experienced them in the past.

Meanwhile, 22.7% of those surveyed said that they had been tested for coronavirus and almost one in three of those (32.2%) were positive. More than three quarters of those who tested positive believe they may have been contagious while working. Of those, 35.1% blamed the lack of proper protection for the infection, while 41.1% said it was because they were caring for potentially positive patients who hadn’t been tested.

Some 5% said they had recovered from the virus, while 7.9% reported being in quarantine and not working, which the association said could indicate that 19,700 professionals were not currently working because of infections. Another 5% said they are showing symptoms but still working, but it wasn't clear that all of the professionals had done a test, nor could it be confirmed if they were positive or not. The full results of the survey will be published in the coming days.

New cases of infection in Spain’s coronavirus epidemic have begun to gradually level off, but the country’s health care workers are believed to be the most infected in the world, and some 23 doctors have reportedly died. Government data revealed on Tuesday that 26,672 health care workers have been infected. Like many countries, the outbreak took the country by surprise and health workers are complaining about the lack of masks and other protective gear.

Spain’s death toll to date is 18,579, with 523 more fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to Tuesday’s numbers. A total of 177,633 are infected in the country. Spain has just started to ease slightly a strict lockdown on business activity that has been in place for weeks.