The lack of sanitation in India has prompted some doctors to use raincoats and motorcycle helmets while fighting the emerging Corona virus (Covid-19), which reveals a weakened state of the public health system, before an expected increase in cases of infection. With the virus.
On Monday, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was trying to purchase quantities of this equipment, called personal protection, from the domestic market and from South Korea and China to fill the deficit.
However, more than 10 doctors on the front lines, in treating people infected with the virus, told Reuters: They are concerned, lest they become carriers of the virus, in the absence of proper protective masks and protective gowns.
The virus has infected 1251 people in India, and it has killed 32 people.
It is expected that by mid-May more than 100,000 people could become infected, which will put severe pressure on the health care system, which is not getting enough spending in India, and cause doctors to panic.
In the eastern city of Calcutta, young doctors at the main medical facility where corona patients treat plastic raincoats received last week to examine patients wearing them, according to two doctors.
"We will not work if the price is our souls," said one of the doctors, who declined to give his name because he feared the authorities would punish him.
In the northern state of Haryana, near New Delhi, Dr. Sandeep Garg, at ESI Hospital, said he used a motorcycle helmet, because he did not have "N95" masks, which provided adequate protection from viruses.
In a state-run hospital in Rohtak, Haryana, a number of young doctors refrained from treating patients, unless they received adequate safety equipment. One of the doctors said that "terror has taken over everyone, and no one wants to work without protection."