বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৮শে মার্চ, ২০২৪ খ্রিস্টাব্দ ১৪ই চৈত্র, ১৪৩০ বঙ্গাব্দ

Frontliners to get quarantine allowance

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The government has decided to provide quarantine allowance to doctors, nurses and other public hospital staffers for treating Covid-19 patients from July 1.

The allowance, however, will only be applicable for those who did not avail free accommodation facilities on duty.

The health and family welfare ministry recently sent a proposal to the finance ministry for the special daily allowance for 15 days a month.

The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the proposal letter.

According to the letter, a doctor will receive a daily allowance of Tk 2,000 for 15 days a month in the capital whereas the allowance for a nurse is Tk 1,200 per day and Tk 800 per day for other healthcare professionals.

Doctors outside the capital will get Tk 1,800 per day while a nurse will be entitled to receive Tk 1,000 per day and other hospital staffers will get Tk 650 per day.

The healthcare professionals will treat patients for 15 days in the month and then go through a mandatory quarantine period for the next 15 days, as per the Covid-19 guidelines.

During the pandemic, many healthcare professionals at public hospitals across the country worked from their homes and managed the self-quarantine period on their own due to the dearth of accommodation and other facilities in their respective areas.

A deputy secretary of the ministry said the prime minister approved the proposal in July and now they have sent it to the finance ministry for approval with retrospective effect.

The number of government health workers engaged in Covid-19 treatment in the country is 23,285. Of them, 5,726 are doctors, 10,044 are nurses and 8,515 are other staffers, the proposal read. The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the proposal.

If all of them receive the allowance at the prescribed rate, it will cost the government around Tk 39.50 crore per month, it read.

But the proposal did not say how many of them will be entitled for the quarantine allowance. Talking to the Daily Star, a health ministry official said that they were working on the list.

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in March, many public healthcare professionals stayed at different hotels during their quarantine period.

But there was a huge hue and cry over the abnormal hotel bills and also medical professionals raising questions about the quality of services at those government-designated hotels.

Later, the government arranged a number of training centres, including the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM), as accommodation facilities for the frontline warriors in Dhaka city.

The cost for that purpose was around Taka 3,000 including food per person, according to health ministry officials.

AKM Mustafizur Rahman, civil surgeon of Habiganj, said outside the capital accommodation at hotels is not good in many places.

“So, the amount is tolerable. It is not too much or too less. The plus point is that health workers can stay at home and would get an allowance. So it’s good,” he said.