The Indian Medical Association on Wednesday appealed to the Central Government and State Government to limit Covid duty of doctors to 8 hours a day in view of high risk of infection due to Omicron.

“The Covid duty of resident doctors should not exceed 8 hours per day and 7 days, after which there should be a quarantine of 10 to 14 days in the accommodation prescribed by the hospital,” the IMA release said.

“There should also be a provision for taking care of their mental health. In the event of a Covid duty doctor becoming ill, government/private hospitals should be admitted to the respective hospital at the earliest,” it added. In case of untimely death, the status of the Covid martyr and compensation, as well as case-wise assistance should be arranged, as per the release.

High mortality rate

According to the IMA, 2,000 doctors died during the second wave of Covid. The mortality rate in the country was around 1.5 per cent among the general population and around 2-3 per cent among healthcare workers. According to this estimate, Covid occurred in about 1,00,000 doctors.

As the Omicron variant is 5.4 times more transmissible than the Delta variant,doctors are expected to have 5 to 10 times more Covid infections than the general public, per IMA.

“The health infrastructure can crumble due to the shortage of sick doctors,” IMA added.

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