Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Apr 16: The hotel staff attending doctors put up in various hotels in Srinagar rue the absence of protective gears and at the same time any assurance from the administration for taking care of their medical needs if they catch COVID-19 infection.
A number of such workers who are earning not more than Rs 5000 per month are currently caught up with the doctors and are catering to them after the administration provided them the accommodation in hotels in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
A staffer from a hotel situated on city outskirts told Excelsior that his hotel is housing almost 40 such doctors who are dealing with the COVID cases. He said that while the administration has taken care of the doctors, but nothing has been done for them. He said that hotel staff feels left out and dejected.
“We have not been even provided proper gears, at least two weeks ago, we were given few masks and gloves, but since then, nothing; the administration should consider the gravity of the situation; we are dealing with potential COVID positives, though they take due precautions,” he said.
Others said that the staffers do not usually get anything more than Rs 5000 and that they have been literally locked up here as they cannot even go home.
“Because we do not know what we are dealing with; believe me, all of us would have fled, but we cannot do that, we don’t want to put the lives of our families at risk,” said another staffer.
The staffers are in panic after what they hear about the situation outside. They are quite aware of the fact that the doctors are running short of proper PPEs, and do not know who among the doctors they are catering to would be infected.
“Nobody among us knows what we are actually dealing with. The doctors who are putting up here, residing at a walking distance from here, if their safety, their family’s safety is important, shouldn’t our safety also be a concern; what if we catch the infection,” the staffers asked.
The staffer demand that they should get proper safety gears including masks and sanitizers. They also that while they belong to lower strata of the society, the government should announce some medical guarantees to be provided to them if they, or their family members get infected.
“Like doctors are frontline workers, we should also be treated like that, because we are catering to them; we fall under high risk; we are risking our lives too,” they said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel