Indian Doctors Forced To Wear Raincoat And Helmets As Protective Gear When Treating CO.VID-19

The shortage of protective gear for doctors and other health officials at the frontline against CO.VID-19 has forced some of them to improvise and use helmet and raincoat as substitutes.

PM Narendra Modi said that India is trying to deal with the situation by buying equipment in bulks from South Korea and China, as well as from domestic manufacturers.

At this point, India has had 1,251 people come down with the disease and 32 lives lost to it. More than a dozen doctors currently treating patients with CO.VID-19 said that they were afraid if they did not have proper gears, they might be the next carriers of the virus.

On Tuesday, drivers of over 4,700 ambulances in Uttar Pradesh were on strike to demand health insurance and proper protective gear. According to Hanuman Pandey, the Ambulance Workers Association’s president, they will not risk their own lives until their demand is satisfied.

A projection suggests that by mid-May, India may have 100,000 cases of CO.VID-19, putting the country’s healthcare system and doctors under severe pressure.

In Kolkata, junior doctors at Beliaghata Infectious Disease Hospital, the main facility to treat CO.VID-19 in the region were given raincoats when examining patients, as stated by two doctors working there.

As stated by Dr. Sandeep Garg at ESI Hospital, he mostly used motorbike helmets because he had no N95 masks, an essential gear to protect doctors from infection.

In a hospital in Rohtak, multiple junior doctors have refused to examine patients unless they are provided with adequate equipment.

They have also set up a CO.VID-19 fund to purchase masks. Each doctor will contribute 1,000 rupees to the fund. A doctor said that everyone was scared and no one wanted to work without proper protection.

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