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COVID-19: Doctors to continue striking

By Anyway Yotamu

Doctors have vowed to continue with their strike and said the government should just meet its end of the bargain to avert the looming crisis, rather than plead with them to return to work without personal protective equipment (PPEs).

Norman Matara, the Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights Secretary-General told Spiked Online Media.

Matara said: “The government should simply meet its end of the bargain, pay health workers a living wage, provide them with adequate personal protective equipment, and equip hospitals with medicines and equipment. If they do this simple task, health workers will happily return to work and do their job of saving lives.”

The government wants health workers to act in the nation’s interest and exhibit a sense of responsibility, yet the same government is not meeting its end of responsibilities. Health workers cannot work on empty stomachs and without protective clothing simply because they save lives.

Seniors doctors downed their tools last month and joined other health workers who had already embarked on industrial action against their employer several weeks before.

The president pleaded with health workers to return to work as the COVID-19 outbreak spikes in Zimbabwe.

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Byron Adonis Mutingwende