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PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
Tue Mar 31, 2020, 11:42 PM Mar 2020

Canadian nurses treating COVID-19 patients cite unsafe-work laws to demand N95 masks

Dozens of nurses across Canada have invoked labour laws to demand the right to wear N95 masks while treating certain COVID-19 patients, their national union head says, as health-care workers gird themselves for a feared wave of new coronavirus cases.

Nurses in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta have cited occupational health and safety legislation that allows employees to refuse work they believe is unsafe, after hospitals barred them from donning the higher-level masks, said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

There have been “under 50” such refusals, among a group of health professionals “that never does it,” she said.

Doctors and nurses across the country have reported a shortage of N95 respirators, with many facilities now keeping them under lock and key.

Read the rest at: https://nationalpost.com/health/canadian-nurses-working-with-covid-19-patients-demand-legal-right-to-wear-n95-masks
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