AIIMS Nurses Face Covid Risk in Delhi, Go on Protest

As India’s capital New Delhi has become the epicenter of coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in the country, the citizens as well as the healthcare workers are facing increased risk from the virus.

Now, the nurses working at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have gone on protest. They are demanding that working hours of nurses on Covid-19 duty wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) be brought down to four hours from the current six hours.

The AIIMS Nurses Union president, Harish Kumar Kajla, complains that the nurses are facing multiple complications such as extensive sweating, weight loss, and vomiting because they have to be locked in the PPE kits continuously for six hours.

According to a BBC report, some nurses are getting infected with the PPE kits that they wear. While wearing these kits, the nurses can neither eat nor can the visit the toilet. Plus, there is a huge risk of catching the coronavirus.

While nearly 500 AIIMS nurses are currently working under protest that began on June 1, the union has warned to go on a strike on June 10 if the administration does not accept their demand of reduced working hours. The nurses have also planned to go on an indefinite strike from June 15.

It will be a major setback for the Covid patients in Delhi if the AIIMS nurses decide to go on strike. Delhi is not only among the worst-affected cities of India, it is also facing extreme recklessness in decision-making to deal with the crisis.

The Delhi Government headed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is only making false claims about the severity of virus and healthcare facilities, but actually there is hardly arrangement made for the Covid tests and patients. People are dying of coronavirus in almost every street of Delhi.