Coronavirus nurse fined for unzipping hazmat suit & removing her eye protector when Putin official arrived at hospital
A CORONAVIRUS nurse in Russia was fined for unzipping her hazmat suit and removing her eye protector when government officials arrived at the hospital.
Medical student, Anastasia Myravyova, was working in a Covid-19 hospital when senior officials spotted her.
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The 20-year-old was caught by chief sanitary doctor Natalia Bashketova and governor Alexander Beglov when they were holding an inspection at the St Petersburg hospital.
She was taken to court and fined 15,000 roubles or £172 for failing to be “a model of discipline, cleanliness and tidiness.”
The fine was more than half of her 28,000 roubles or £322 monthly earnings at the emergency Lenexpo coronavirus hospital.
When the news broke about the fine, it sparked an outpouring of sympathy from the public who quickly raised the money to pay the fine.
“I’m very touched, many thanks to those kind people,” said Anastasia.
‘WASN’T ENOUGH AIR’
“At that moment I felt very bad. There wasn’t enough air, so I freed myself a little, not at the right time.
“I unbuttoned and removed my hood…There is no ventilation, these suits do not breathe. You work as if you’re in a steam room.”
She added: “It was bad all the time. I left the ward and just didn’t feel that I could breathe. And the temperature rose.”
Supporters raised more cash than the amount of the fine which Anastasia paid to a charity for children with cancer.
“I am in my last year at a medical college and graduating this summer,” she said.
“When there were not enough doctors (to cope with the pandemic emergency), they called for students.
She has not had a day off since starting on 4 May, she said.
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“You work six hours, then 12 to relax, and so on without days off.”
Some 5,000 medics in her city have been infected with coronavirus.
The fine follows a scandal last month when a nurse in Tula was punished for wearing only lingerie under a transparent protection suit in a male coronavirus ward.
She had been accused of “non-compliance with the requirements for medical clothing”.
But other medics said there were insufficient stocks of clothing to wear under the see-through medical suits.