India: Doctors on strike as virus cases soar past 7.9M

By Cheena Kapoor

NEW DELHI (AA) - Senior doctors at government-run hospitals in India’s capital Delhi wore black ribbons on their arms Monday to support their colleagues for non-payment of salaries since June.

The doctors at the state-run hospital, Hindu Rao, have been on an indefinite hunger strike since Friday to demand pending salaries thus disrupting patient care.

A read-out by the doctors blamed the government for ignoring the “frontline healthcare workers”.

“Multiple talks with concerned authorities have led to no positive outcome. With no permanent solution to this chronic issue yet, it is extremely unfortunate that the resident doctors had to resort to an indefinite hunger strike,” stated the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association, a body representing doctors nationwide.

With the coronavirus count crossing 7.9 million cases on Monday after registering 45,149 new cases, India is the second worst-hit country in the world and its medical infrastructure is hard-pressed at the moment.

The country recorded its lowest daily death toll in four months on Monday with 480 new fatalities, bringing the count to 119,014.

Government data revealed that India was recording an average of 1,000 deaths a day in August. In September, this number rose to 1,100 a day when the number of fresh cases peaked at an average of 90,000 a day.

Over 7 million patients have recovered from the disease in the country -- 59,105 in the last 24 hours -- pushing the recovery rate to 90.23%. The total number of active cases in the country now stands at 653,717.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed more than 1.15 million lives in 189 countries and regions since last December.

The US, India, and Brazil are currently the worst-hit countries.