Doctors on strike in Balochistan over lack of protective gear

The young doctors in Balochistan have gone on strike to protest the government’s lack of interest in tackling the coronavirus spread.

Talking to 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday morning, President Young Doctors Association Quetta Dr Yasir Achakzai blasted the provincial government for not heeding to their requests for the urgent provision of protective medical gear for doctors treating suspected coronavirus patients.

Dr Achakzai said it has been over a month now since the government was asked to deliver the equipment which it did not. “Now the local spread has begun as a number of doctors have fallen ill to the deadly disease because they did not wear the protective gear,” he added.

He maintained that if they continued their work without precautions then they all might get affected in the next two weeks. “As the provincial government is not paying any attention towards us, we have appealed to the chief justice of Balochistan High Court to intervene and help us over this issue,” he added.

Dr Achakzai said today 18 doctors have been put into quarantine after one of their colleagues caught the coronavirus. “Now we are left with only five doctors to run the province’s big cities and handle the emergencies,” he added.

Some doctors, he said, are still performing their duties voluntarily.