CAMAGÜEY.- Health personnel constitute a special population that is doubly vulnerable to COVID-19. While the risk of getting sick and dying is one of the most fatal consequences related to the pandemic, they not only feel threatened by the virus within their work area, but also by constant concern for those who leave home.

Hence, the association between occupational stressors and physical and mental imbalance in health workers is a topic of high interest after more than a year of uninterrupted confrontation with the disease, in which the degrees of competences and responsibilities imposed in the performance of work activities they grew exponentially.

"The SARS-CoV-2 has generated a high degree of stress in the entire population and of course in the medical personnel it is exacerbated, because in addition to the limitations in physical contact, to which we Cubans are accustomed, and the rigor of the work there are the children, the grandparents, the sick, the pregnant women ... that we leave behind, worries that cannot be dislodged as easily as if pressing a button were to speak because above all, they are also human beings ”, assures Lic. Iraida Gómez Fonseca, specialist in Medical Psychology, head of the provincial group of Health Psychology and member of the Association of Psychologists of Cuba.

"This tension, which increases almost every day, in such a short period of time, has been called pandemic fatigue, and today it is an extraordinary risk for our healthcare personnel."

As a trend they postpone managing their own worries, uncertainties and fears to another time or to a point of collapse. Studies have shown that future insecurity, anxiety, physical and emotional exhaustion, and stress are common. These dysfunctional states and their inadequate coping undoubtedly lead to a deterioration in their work performance and personal care.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez