The COVID-19 pandemic is placing a massive burden on medical staff across the world. Doctors, nurses, EMTs and others are working around the clock to treat infected patients and slow the outbreak. Some countries can rely on a larger pool of medical personnel than others, however, and according to OECD data, Germany has 12.9 nurses per 1,000 of its inhabitants.
In the United States and Australia, that figure is slightly lower at 11.7 nurses per 1,000 of the population. In countries that are dealing with significant COVID-19 outbreaks such as Italy and Spain, there are 6.7 and 5.7 nurses per 1,000 people respectively. The figure is even lower in China at 2.7 and in India at 1.5. Many countries are getting reinforcements, though, and thousands of retired nurses have returned to the frontlines to help slow the pandemic.
