JOIN USSince April, 417 health workers test positive for Covid-19 in Kashmir
In Kashmir, 417 health workers, including 147 doctors, have tested positive for Covid-19 till August 6, exposing numerous flaws in the healthcare system of the violence hit region.
Official figures reveal that Srinagar city, where all major tertiary care hospitals are situated, has been the worst hit with the highest number of positive healthcare workers.
Healthcare workers blame the government for exposing them to the coronavirus by not providing them enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing. “Testing is an early warning system. The government is not testing enough and its policy is putting doctors and frontline workers at extreme risk,” a medico at tertiary-care SKIMS hospital told DH.
He said it was also found that due to a shortage of PPE at the hospitals, the doctors and medical staff have become vulnerable to Covid-19 patients they are treating.
“The actual number of health care workers, who have tested positive, is likely to be higher as there is no separate centralised data on them from either public or private hospitals and no data from smaller nursing homes and clinics either,” the doctor added.
In J&K, the number of Covid-19 positive cases has already breached the 24000-mark. The only silver lining in this gloomy situation is the improving recovery rate of infected patients which has reached 62%.
President, Doctors Association of Kashmir, Dr. Nisar ul Hassan said that health care workers were at greater risk as the Covid-19 seems to hit health care workers harder than others
“Administration must ensure the rationing of health staff in order to reduce their exposure. Medical staff must remain safe because if healthcare workers collapse, the health system will shut down, and people will suffer,” he said.
Indian Medical Association (IMA) said on Wednesday that 99 doctors, a majority of them general practitioners, have succumbed to Covid-19 in India since the pandemic broke out in March. Of those dead, 73 were above the age of 50 years, 19 in the age-group of 35-50 and seven below 35 years, the data showed.
The IMA has declared a red alert for medicos and medical administrators asking them to raise their guard. For nurses and doctors on the front line, the pandemic has been relentless. It has led to anxiety and fear as the risk of exposure is double-edged, at the workplace as well as outside the hospital premises.