Don't behave badly with doctors and nurses: Mamata Banerjee (File)
Doctors and nurses in West Bengal will get seven days off work after seven days of duty so that they can deal with the stress of working in coronavirus hospitals, announced Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today, also warning people against harassing health workers because they worked with COVID-19 patients.
"God forbid, but if you are affected, then these very same doctors and nurses with whom you are misbehaving will be taking care of you. Don't behave badly with them," Ms Banerjee said.
The immediate provocation was the harassment of a nurse at Ranaghat in Nadia district. She works at Kolkata's nodal Beleghata Infectious Diseases Hospital.
Recently, locals refused to let her enter the village when she returned from duty. They said since she was treating Covid-19 patients, she could be carrying back the infection. They said she should stay at the hospital and not endanger the village.
The nurse lives in Nopara village in the Ranaghat police station area along with her widowed mother and school-going sister. Some locals did come to her rescue and drop her to her house, but the hostile group of villagers are not allowing the family to fetch drinking water from the local tubewell, taunting the mother and sister if they step out of the house to go buy essentials.
"This is most unfortunate I am asking the administration to arrange a state government flat for the nurse and her family to stay," Ms Banerjee said, adding, "we can arrest people who harass health workers but we want to treat the situation in a humane manner."
Besides the Ranaghat incident, there was trouble at Bankura last night when a body was being taken for cremation. Locals refuse to allow the cremation till police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the crowd.
In another incident, three members of a family from South 24 Parganas district who came to Kolkata for a medical emergency were beaten up when they returned home because locals suspected they had gone for COVID-19 tests and treatment.
The police had to intervene to control the situation.