The Government Midwives Association has urged health authorities to pay special attention to the increasing COVID-19 infections among midwives.
Speaking during a media briefing in Kandy today, the President of the Association, Devika Kodituwakku said 600 midwives have been infected with the coronavirus thus far.
Kodituwakku said the daily number of midwives contracting the virus has rapidly increased due to the spread of the Delta COVID variant across the country.
She said 12-15 midwives contracted the virus yesterday.
The President of the Association called for an appropriate program at medical institutions to maintain its processes without any disruptions as number of infections will continue to increase in the future.
Kodituwakku charged that the ground level health workers including midwives carrying out duties amidst the COVID pandemic have not received adequate facilities including face masks.
She said they request for an appropriate program to be implemented to safeguard health workers from the virus to no avail.
Kodituwakku said although the Director-General of Health Services had claimed 300,000 face masks are issued daily, only 138,000 are currently in service.
She said each health worker must receive two masks daily at least adding however they only receive 10-15 face masks monthly.
The President of the Association called for an investigation into how the masks are distributed.
She said when this is reported to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry does not have a program programme to investigate them.
Kodituwakku said health workers fall victim to the coronavirus due to the lack of facilities provided by the Health Ministry.
