Capt Krishan Sharma
India Post News Service & Agencies
NEW DELHI: It is horrible to see our doctors, nurses, health workers, ER personnel and NGOs who have been harassed and beaten up and denied PPEs around the world for trying to protect and save us from the virus. Is it not the responsibility of respective governments to see they are protected and assured of their safety? They are risking their lives to save people. Many of them are working under a severe shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). It is time the government officials and the public wake up and protect them for their own safety.
Many doctors and healthcare workers in India have tested positive and hundreds of them have been qurantined all over India. Over 50 people, including doctors and nursing staff of a hospital in Bikaner alone, have been quarantined after samples taken from a 60-year-old woman, who died there, tested positive for coronavirus.
Two patients and a staff member of the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Maharastra have so far tested positive for coronavirus at the medical facility. The resident doctors protested outside the office of the GMCH dean against lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and N95 masks that are essential for doctors deployed in emergency health services.
They submitted a memorandum to the dean, saying they would stay quarantined in their hostels if safety equipments are not provided.
“Even after some patients tested positive for coronavirus, the doctors treating them in emergency wards were not provided these safety equipment,” Mahrashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) Aurangabad unit president, Dr Amir Tadvi told PTI. These doctors attend to 50 to 100 patients in a day.
In Kanpur, Members of the Tablighi Jamaat group have alledgely refused to take medicine and have misbehaved with the medical staff prompting authorities to remove female staffers from there. They were seen spitting on their hands and then handle staircases railings. They also misbehaved with the doctors.
In Chennai a group of people assaulted healthcare workers near Kovilpatti in the Thoothukudi District of the State when they wanted to take a family of five to the hospital for testing for coronavirus infection.
In Delhi one of the members of the Tablighi group also tried to jump down from the hospital window but was stopped by the medical staff. UP government booked some members of the group for misbehaving with female nursing staff in Ghaziabad hospital. Some of them were roaming semi-nude singing and passing obscene comments on female staffers.
While in US, with the spread of COVID-19, it has become a nightmare for all hospitals and doctors in emergency rooms. The demand for PPE has increased multifold as per CDC and FDA. With more than 80% of masks being imported from Asia and mainly from China, US is caught in a very peculiar situation. As Asia is the hot bed of the pandemic, most countries have stopped exporting. Government has asked all hospitals to protect stock on hand and refrain from panic buying.
President Trump confirmed in his recent statement that PPE is nearly depleted because of extraordinary demand to fight COVID-19.
Recently NBC news reported shortage in New York City has led to rationing of respirators and other supplies. Respirators are being reused. Young doctors, residents are being denied protection altogether. Further, the US government has encouraged industries to ramp up the supply chain by manufacturing the crucial safety equipment needed to help meet the growing challenge.
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