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Thousands of doctors working on contract walk out, with months of lockdown doing little to curb the outbreak.
26 Jul 2021. Updated: 11 hours ago
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
The country reported a record 17,045 cases and 92 deaths on Sunday, increasing pressure on the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which in January declared an “emergency” saying COVID-19 had brought the country to “breaking point”.
... In recent weeks, social media has been awash with harrowing photos and videos of a hospital system pushed to the brink by the sheer weight of numbers.
One video showed bodies kept in what appeared to be a hospital storeroom while the neighbouring ward was so full, patients were sitting in wheelchairs or on benches dragged in from corridors outside.
Others have shown people queueing for hours at COVID-19 assessment centres following positive tests and crowded and unsanitary conditions at government-run quarantine facilities. Originally for asymptomatic patients or those with mild signs of disease, the centres are now caring for those with far worse cases of the coronavirus.
... As parliament convened, hundreds of junior doctors walked off the job in a long-simmering dispute over pay and conditions.
... Dr Mustapha Kamal Aziz, a spokesman for the hartal, told Al Jazeera that junior doctors had been working shifts of as long as 36 hours and also filling in for colleagues who contracted the virus and had to isolate.
“We are burned out and exhausted,” he said, adding that the continuing uncertainty was likely to fuel a brain drain with medics looking elsewhere for work.
26 Jul 2021. Updated: 11 hours ago
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
The country reported a record 17,045 cases and 92 deaths on Sunday, increasing pressure on the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which in January declared an “emergency” saying COVID-19 had brought the country to “breaking point”.
... In recent weeks, social media has been awash with harrowing photos and videos of a hospital system pushed to the brink by the sheer weight of numbers.
One video showed bodies kept in what appeared to be a hospital storeroom while the neighbouring ward was so full, patients were sitting in wheelchairs or on benches dragged in from corridors outside.
Others have shown people queueing for hours at COVID-19 assessment centres following positive tests and crowded and unsanitary conditions at government-run quarantine facilities. Originally for asymptomatic patients or those with mild signs of disease, the centres are now caring for those with far worse cases of the coronavirus.
... As parliament convened, hundreds of junior doctors walked off the job in a long-simmering dispute over pay and conditions.
... Dr Mustapha Kamal Aziz, a spokesman for the hartal, told Al Jazeera that junior doctors had been working shifts of as long as 36 hours and also filling in for colleagues who contracted the virus and had to isolate.
“We are burned out and exhausted,” he said, adding that the continuing uncertainty was likely to fuel a brain drain with medics looking elsewhere for work.