COVID-19 in Batman: ‘At least 750 health workers infected’

* Photo: Social media

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The Batman Medical Chamber and the Health and Social Service Laborers Union (SES) Batman Branch have released a joint statement regarding midwife Yasemin Çolak, who has recently lost her life due to COVID-19 in Sason district of Turkey's southeastern province of Batman.

Noting that 115 health workers, including 51 physicians, have lost their lives since the pandemic broke out in Turkey, the statement has read, "According to the data announced by the Health Ministry a few days ago, the number of infected health workers has topped 40 thousand."

The statement has also raised concerns that province-specific COVID-19 data has not been shared for a long time and said, "At least 750 health workers have been infected with COVID-19 in our Batman province, as far as we are informed by the health workers working in the field."

"Two days ago, we lost our esteemed fellow health worker Midwife Yasemin Çolak working in the Family Health Center in Sason district in Batman due to COVID-19 infection," the statement of the organizations has indicated, adding that on the day when Yasemin Çolak died, five health workers lost their lives due to COVID-19 across the country.

'PPEs not provided by the state'

"We are dying everyday, we are declining everyday," the statement has underlined, briefly adding the following:

"We emphasize something that we have been insistently emphasizing since the outbreak of the pandemic: Protecting public health is only possible by protecting the health of healthcare workers.

"As we have also been insistently reiterating, we would like to once again underline that the working conditions and working hours of health workers should be arranged with the pandemic in mind, quality personal protective equipments should be provided in full, healthcare administrators in all units should take decisions together with health workers and they should not disregard the demands and recommendations of health workers and the mentioned problems should be solved quickly.

"For the last three months, the personal protective equipments of the health workers working in family health centers in our province have not been afforded by the public administration. Health workers get them by their own means. We demand that COVID-19 be recognized as an occupational disease and the necessary decisions to make this happen should be taken swiftly." (RT/SD)