AYDIN - Although the number of healthcare workers infected in the fight against coronavirus outbreak is not clearly shared by the state organs, the ambigious data indicates that there are around a thousand healthcare workers in Turkey who are infected with COVID-19.

 

Health workers, who faces a lack of personal protective equipments explained the schock they experienced at the beginning of the pandemic: "We had no idea what we were about to face and what to do".

 

Health and Social Workers Union (SES) Aydin Branch Co-Chair Öznur Özağaç works as a nurse in Aydin State Hospital, which turned into a pandemic hospital. Özağaç explained the problems health workers in the city face: "Some disinfectants, masks and gloves have been distributed in many places, but yet the lack of protective uniforms and other PPE goes on". Nurse Özağaç also shared the information that in four hospitals in the Aegean city, there are no special vehicles arranged for the transportation of healthcare workers. 

 

The union's secretary Hale Dalkıran mentioned the problem regarding the 24-hours shift application. "The exhaustion after 24-hours of shift decreses the immune system of healthcare workers" said Dalkıran, "So the healthcare workers demand 6 or 8-hours shifts to serve more efficiently and also to support their own immune system".