The Grand Health Alliance on Monday gave one-day ultimatum to the government to fulfill their demands.
Addressing a press conference Grand Health Alliance Chairman Dr Salman Habib said, the doctors and paramedical staff is facing shortage of the PPEs across the country.
He added more than 30 per cent of the doctors and the staff have been tested positive for the coronavirus.
He said that doctors serving at all government hospitals should be screened for the virus and provided the necessary equipment. Dr Salman threatened for countrywide strike on Wednesday if their demands were not met.
Last week, Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid had said that doctors who had tested positive for coronavirus in Multan and Dera Ghazi (DG) Khan have recovered from the infection. “27 doctors in Multan and a doctor in DG Khan contracted the virus but now they have tested negative,” the minister had said during a TV programme and added that she had advised doctors to fight against the virus rather than becoming afraid of it. She had said that the entire nation including doctors is facing threat from the pandemic and they had to jointly fight against it.
It was reported that the current sit-in protest will continue in the month of Ramzan while Sehar and Iftar both will be observed in the Ministry of Health.
Health workers have complained for weeks that the country’s hospitals are suffering chronic shortages of safety gear, prompting the arrest of more than 50 doctors who called for more supplies in Quetta earlier this month.
The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) claimed that the frontline staff have been left vulnerable, with more than 150 medical workers testing positive for the virus nationwide.
