Monitoring Desk:
Doctors and nurses have observed hunger strike in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province against the non-availability of protective equipment to battle the coronavirus on Saturday. The protesters have kept working in their hospitals while taking turns to demonstrate outside the health authority offices in Lahore. YDA Balochistan has also backed the demand of doctors and nurses observing hunger strike in support of their demands in Lahore.
Frontline staff have been left vulnerable, with more than 150 medical workers testing positive for the virus nationwide, according to the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) in worst-hit Punjab. The protesters have kept working in their hospitals while taking turns to demonstrate outside the health authority offices in Lahore.
Punjab’s health workers union is supporting the alliance and also demanding adequate quarantine conditions for medical staff.
Nearly three dozen doctors, nurses and paramedics contracted the virus in one hospital in Multan, while seven members of a doctor’s family were infected in Lahore, it added. “We are simply demanding justice for our community,” said doctor and YDA chairman Khizer Hayat. Hospital staff would not escalate their protest by walking off the job, he added.
