LAHORE: Dozens of Pakistani doctors and nurses have gone on a hunger striketo protest against the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)available for frontline medical staff treating coronavirus patients.
Health workers have complained for weeks that the country´s hospitals aresuffering chronic shortages of safety gear, prompting the arrest of morethan 50 doctors who called for more supplies in the city of Quetta earlierthis month.
The frontline staff has been left vulnerable, with more than 150 medicalworkers testing positive for the virus nationwide, according to the YoungDoctors´ Association (YDA) in the worst-hit Punjab province.
The protesters have kept working in their hospitals while taking turns todemonstrate outside the health authority offices in the provincial capitalLahore.
“We do not intend on stopping until the government listens to our demands.They have been consistently refusing to adhere to our demands,” said doctorSalman Haseeb.
Haseeb heads the province´s Grand Health Alliance, which is organising theprotest, and he said he had not eaten since April 16.
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“We are on the frontline of this virus and if we are not protected then thewhole population is at risk,” he told AFP.
The alliance said about 30 doctors and nurses were on hunger strike, withup to 200 medical staff joining them each day for demonstrations.
Punjab´s health worker unions are supporting the alliance and alsodemanding adequate quarantine conditions for medical staff. -APP/AFP
