Sergey Zhvachkin, the Governor of the Tomsk region of Russia, said that doctors who contracted the coronavirus infection became ill through their own fault. The governor also set out a doubt that the infected doctors should receive financial compensations.
"I became so angry after I learned that doctors at a number of healthcare institutions in Tomsk could afford to drink tea together. As a result, they are sick together. They also went to barbecue and birthday parties together," said Sergey Zhvachkin.
The governor also told a story about a woman doctor who "went to smoke and got infected with the coronavirus," and then went to drink tea wearing the same suit.
"On the one hand, she was supposed to be paid for contracting the coronavirus. But on the other hand, she violated the all imaginary and inconceivable medical rules and infected others. And because of such cases, we have to close whole departments. Are we supposed to pay her money that she is supposed to receive for contracting the infection, or shall we punish her for accordingly for infecting others?" the governor wondered.
Strangely enough, the governor is convinced that no doctors, who directly work with COVID-19 patients, is infected with the novel virus. "It's all because they follow safety precautions, because they are at the forefront," the official explained.
Earlier, it became known that in the Tomsk region, doctors became infected with coronavirus at clinics of the Siberian State Medical University, one of them died. Doctors working at those clinics complained that they had no protective means and had to make face masks themselves.
Due to coronavirus infection, the pulmonology department of the Tomsk Clinical Hospital No. 3 and two departments of the Cardiology Research Institute were closed for quarantine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that doctors who were infected with the coronavirus infection, were entitled to insurance benefits. In the Tomsk region, the allowance makes up 68,811 rubles ($1,000).
In Russia, over the past day, 8,726 cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed. In total, there are as many as 450,000 cases of COVID-19 in Russia as of June 5, 2020. Of these, 212,500 recovered, 5,528 died.
The total number of coronavirus-infected people in the world exceeded 6.63 million people by the morning of June 5.