Four hours after stopping work, demanding of personal protective equipment (PPE), interns at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) have joined back. 

The interns started attending to patients around noon after the authorities supplied masks, gloves and sanitisers to some who work at the vulnerable units, said Iqbal Hasan, general secretary of RMCH Interns' Council.

Around 200 interns of the hospital stopped attending to patients around 8am, Iqbal said. "We have quarantined ourselves," he added.

The hospital authorities repeatedly told interns that they would provide them with PPE within a day or two, but they failed to do so in the last two weeks, said interns.

"We attend to a number of patients with fever, sneezing, and coughs every day, and nobody knows who among them are infected with coronavirus," said the interns' spokesperson Iqbal.

"Who will take responsibilities if any of us get infected with the disease?" he asked. Interns have not lost their sense of humanity, he added.

"They want to serve people. They are protesting the dillydallying by authorities over a serious matter," he further said.

Denying the interns' claims, Dr Saiful Ferdous, deputy director of the medical college, said the hospital has received nearly 100 pieces of PPE, and 1,000 units each of masks, gloves and gowns.

"We have our limitations… We couldn't provide PPE to all physicians of the hospital. We were able to facilitate just the coronavirus unit doctors." More consignments will reach soon, he assured.