Yesterday, June 21, a number of health doctors and employees of Kirkuk General Hospital protested against the allocation of their hospital to coronavirus patients, claiming that such a decision is "wrong" and will lead to a catastrophe.
Kirkuk crisis cell decided to put coronavirus patients under medical observations at the Kirkuk general hospital due to the spike in the cases, which has left no spaces in the other medical centers previously provided for the patients.
Kamaran Ali, a health worker, participated in the protest and told KirkukNow that, “we have no necessary medical protective supplies, while we interact with hundreds of patients… despite that they decide to allocate the hospital to coronavirus patients.”
He said the location of the hospital is not appropriate for treatment of coronavirus patients because it is located in the city center, adding that the decision should be canceled.
In the protest, the health workers also asked for the provision of COVID-19 protective supplies
“We will not accept the decision to allocate this hospital to treat COVID-19 patients… if our demand is not met, we will continue protesting,” Kali Azad, another health worker, said.
In the meantime, a number of people, suffering from kidney diseases, protested against the decision as they receive kidney dialysis at the sae hospital.
KirkukNow contacted health authorities more than a time, but they did not respond.
Kirkuk, like other Iraqi provinces, is experiencing a spike in the coronavirus cases. As of now 768 cases have been confirmed, among which 194 recovered and 25 died of the virus.
In Iraq, 30 thousand and 868 have been recorded, with 13 thousand and 935 recovereies and a thousand and 100 deaths.
