A small number of nurses around the world have died after contracting coronavirus, an international nursing body has confirmed.

The International Council of Nurses has learnt from its nursing association members across the globe this week that a handful of nurses have lost their lives to Covid-19.

“It’s a small number but any number is too high" Howard Catton

Howard Catton, chief executive of the ICN, told Nursing Times that nurse deaths had been reported in Iran, Indonesia and Spain.

“It’s a small number but any number is too high but I think what it highlights clearly and tragically is that we now do have nurses who have died as a result of catching coronavirus,” said Mr Catton.

While he could not comment on whether the nurses who died had underlying health conditions, Mr Catton said they were of working age and were not retired nurses who had returned to practice.

The news about nurse deaths comes after latest figures from Italy showed that 9% of the country’s Covid-19 cases were healthcare workers.Mr Catton described this percentage as “worryingly high”.

In light of these developments, he said he was renewing his call on behalf of the ICN for urgent action to ensure sufficient supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) reach frontline nurses.

“The really big important issues and messages from us is that I believe that it’s highly likely that the lack of PPE is a causal factor in the high infection rates,” Mr Catton told Nursing Times.

“I can’t say it’s a causal factor in relation to the deaths, because I just don’t know but I am sure as I can be that the high rate in Italy for example of health worker infections in related to the lack of PPE.

“This reinforces the absolute urgency in the message that we have been pushing for some time about the need to prioritise the supply of PPE to nurses and other frontline health workers.

“That’s not just a call for government, it’s also a call for manufactures to step up and it’s about manufactures as well as increasing supply, working with people like the World Health Organization to make sure they can access that supply and distribute it.”

“This is a major strand of work for the Department of Health and Social Care" Chris Whitty

He stressed that protecting nurses from infection was not only important for their health and wellbeing but would also help ensure to health services were staffed to tackle the crisis.

“The other point is that obviously the deaths are the most tragic and ultimate consequence, but if health workers are infected and even have a milder form of infection that still depletes the number of nurses – the health workforce that is available and able to look after people now at a time when we know they are at the most critical need in many countries around the world,” said Mr Catton.

Meanwhile, in today’s daily briefing on coronavirus in London, deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, assured that the country had a “perfectly adequate supply of PPE at the moment”.

“I think there have been some differential deliveries in some areas, if you like, which has caused a degree of concern recently – we have this completely resolved now,” she added.

Dr Harries announced that in the last 36 hours a “PPE oversight and supply chain” system had been created.

She said this would allow hospitals and the care system to have “appropriate management” of PPE to “ensure that the supply and demand is there”.

It came after England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told yesterday’s briefing that he was “regularly” receiving communications from NHS professionals raising concerns about PPE in the UK.

“I completely understand the points that my colleagues in the NHS are concerned about on PEE, they write to me regularly about this – and entirely reasonably,” he said.

“This is a major strand of work for the Department of Health and Social Care is to make sure this works.”

Describing PPE as a "local and global issue", Professor Whitty said work was also underway to ensure health workers had the right training to use the equipment appropriately.

“If you use PPE incorrectly it doesn’t really have any advantages and occasionally it can even makes things worse,” he noted.