By Pooya Stone
Abbas Ali Dorosti, Vice Chancellor for Health at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, announced the red situation in East Azerbaijan Province, north-west Iran, and said: “So far, about 1,500 members of the province’s health care staff have been infected with the coronavirus.
Some 10 percent of this number includes doctors, 70 percent includes nurses and health staff, and the rest includes the support staff of the health unit.”
Such medical staff of the country’s hospitals has died in the past five months, with their unwavering sacrifices, to save the lives of hundreds and thousands of people. The special circumstances of thousands of nurses, doctors, and medical staff during this period have caused these ‘angels of hope’ to be away from their homes for weeks and months and deprived of visiting their loved ones. Exhaustive working conditions with insulation coatings and long working hours have caused the exhaustion of this stratum of Iranian society.
In a situation, while there is still no prospect for medicine and treatment of the coronavirus, the government and parliament should give a special place to these front-line fighters against the coronavirus. In addition to the necessary care, they should be provided with special facilities to protect themselves from contracting the disease.
Reza Golpira, head of the Ministry of Health’s Center for Hospital Management and Clinical Services Excellence, noting that 19,000 people from the entire health system are infected with the coronavirus in the past five months, said: “11,000 to 12,000 of the nurses contracted the coronavirus from this number.”
The president of Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences said:” More than 143 members of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari medical staff have been infected with the coronavirus.”
Dr. Alireza Moslem from the Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences said: “174 people from Sabzevar’s health and medical staff have been infected with the coronavirus. Some 112 are from the medical staff, 23 from the field of health. And 39 of them are employees of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences.”
Simin Babaei, the spokesperson of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, said that 1000 people from the medical staff of Mazandaran province have been infected with the coronavirus. She stated that the reason for their infection was their long stay in hospitals.
Dr. Hossein Kermanpour, Director General of Public Relations and International Affairs of the Medical System Organization, announcing the death of 138 health workers, said: “Health defenders have studied for more than 30 years to serve the people and with this service, all they proved what a human being must prove his or her love of the people.” According to him, 60% of this sad loss are doctors.
Mohammad Mirzabeigi, the head of the Nursing System Organization, said on 15 July: “Nine thousand nurses in the country’s hospitals have been infected with the coronavirus.” He continued: “Out of these 9,000 people, there are over 4,000 people who are struggling with this disease and have practically left the service cycle. Some 60 to 70% of the nurses have not visited their families for a long time.”
On 16 June, Mirza Beigi wrote a letter to President Hassan Rouhani asking him to address the problems of nurses and medical staff. In his letter, he did not ask for any special concessions from the president. He did not demand any additional salaries or bonuses. Instead, he demanded that nurses’ arrears be paid. He demanded that attention be paid to their employment rights. Paying attention to their legal requests for early retirement of nurses and the problems caused by it. And not adding more pressure on them from the allowable overtime ceiling.
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25 Million Iranians Have Contracted Coronavirus, 30–35 Million Others Are Exposed to Virus: Rouhani
