ASIA/MYANMAR - Catholics appeal: save Covid patients from the boycott of doctors

Wednesday, 3 February 2021 healthcare politics civil society human rights

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Yangon (Agenzia Fides) - In Myanmar, among the non-violent initiatives registered to express dissent towards the military coup in recent days, doctors from various regions are consideringof organizing a civil disobedience and boycott campaign. This movement calls for abandoning public hospitals, in a campaign that is finding debate and support on social networks.
Faced with this possible scenario, Joseph Kung Za Hmung, a Burmese Catholic layman, Director of the Burmese newspaper "Gloria News Journal", based in Yangon, informs Fides: "I would like to point out another concern regarding the people who suffer from the Covid-19 pandemic in Myanmar: many coronavirus patients and other sick people rely on medical services in hospitals. I would like to make, together with other faithful Catholics, an appeal to Myanmar doctors to continue providing services in public hospitals to help and treat patients of all diseases, especially Covid-19 patients who need urgent care. Giving such care does not mean supporting the military coup, but paying attention to the victims of the pandemic, so that they are not abandoned. Otherwise who will take care of them?".
The call comes as the process is beginning in the Catholic Church to open a new Catholic hospital: the Myanmar National Catholic Hospital in Than Lyn, Yangon.
As Fides learned, the project, promoted by the Burmese Bishops, is to convert the Catholic Major seminary, located in Than Lynn, into a hospital. The building was confiscated by the previous military government in 2002 and was recently returned to the Church. Currently, as part of the Church's contribution to the government and citizens of Myanmar in the face of the emergency, the Seminary is already being used as a treatment center for Covid-19 patients and as accommodation for health personnel and volunteers committed to the fight against the pandemic. The social initiative of the Church has received great appreciation from the authorities and the civil community. The plan is to permanently transform it into a modern hospital, thanks to a project financed with foreign donors. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 3/2/2021)