LAHORE           -          Dozens of Pakistani doctors and nurses went on a hunger strike to protest against the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) available for frontline medical staff treating coronavirus patients.Health workers have been complaining for weeks that the country´s hospitals are experiencing chronic shortage
of safety gears– a complaint
which prompted arrest
of more than 50 doctors who called for more supplies of protection equipment in the city of Quetta earlier this month.The frontline staff has been left vulnerable and demoralised,
with more than 150 medical workers testing
positive for the virus nationwide,
according to the Young Doctors´ Association (YDA) in the worst-hit Punjab
province.The protesters kept working in their hospitals while taking turns to demonstrate outside the health authority offices in the provincial capital Lahore to lodge their protest.“We do not intend on stopping
until the government listens to our demands. They have been consistently refusing
to pay heed to our demands,”
said Dr Salman Haseeb.
Dr Salman Haseeb heads the province´s Grand Health Alliance, which is organising
the protest, and he said he had not eaten since April 16. “We are on the frontline of this virus and if we are not protected then the whole population