Nurses in Chandigarh tonsure heads over attacks on Covid-19 front-line workers

At the region’s tertiary care, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, the nursing staff too found it ‘suffocating’ to hear the news of attacks

To protest against attacks on front-line workers by local residents amid the Covid-19 outbreak across India, around 10 nursing staff at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and Employees State Insurance Corporation Model hospital tonsured their heads.

Gauri Shankar, a nursing staff at ESIC Model Hospital, said it was disturbing to see that the front-line workers were being attacked.

“Do healthcare professionals deserve this? No sane person will agree. We cannot be aggressive or mute spectators. We have to tell people that such incidences weaken our morale,” Shankar, who works at the flu clinic of the hospital, said.

In this hospital, four more health workers joined Shankar to protest against the ‘atrocities’. Around 50 nurses work in the hospital run by the Union ministry for labour and employment.

At the region’s tertiary care, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, the nursing staff too found it ‘suffocating’ to hear the news of attacks.

“While we at the front-line are fighting pandemic, health workers were targeted in Moradabad, Indore, Ramganj in Jaipur, and Hyderabad. Strict action should be taken against the guilty,” Satyaveer Dagur, one of the protesters from PGIMER, said.