Kolkata, August 24: A large number of contractual health workers, working under Siliguri Municipal Corporation in West Bengal, staged a protest on Monday demanding immediate release of their delayed salaries. According to a tweet by ANI, the protesting health workers are the ones who are engaged in conducting door to door COVID-19 survey. The workers, clad in blue uniforms, protested outside civic body office in Siliguri. They demanded the immediate release of their delayed salaries and the honorarium that was announced by the Mamata Banerjee-led government in the state.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the stress of the overburdened healthcare workforce across the country. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the country has one medical doctor for every 1,404 people and 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people. West Bengal Health Panel Issues Advisory to Private Hospitals, Asks to Reduce Bed Charges and Offer 10% Discount on Medicines for COVID-19 Patients.

Here's the tweet:

In West Bengal, the total coronavirus cases went up to 1,38,870 after the highest single-day spike of 3,274 new infections was reported on Sunday, the health department said. The death toll due to the disease also rose to 2,794 after 57 more people died due to coronavirus infection.

According to reports, the districts which recorded more than 100 positive cases on Sunday are Paschim Medinipur with 285 coronavirus cases, Purba Medinipur with 209 cases, South 24 Parganas with 187 coronavirus cases, Hooghly with 180 cases, Howrah with 159, Nadia with 108, Bankura with 105, Paschim Bardhaman with 104, and Malda with 102 COVID-19 cases, the bulletin said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 24, 2020 03:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).