Nurses across the country are calling out hospitals and the government response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
Staging a one-day protest Wednesday — the day the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic — union nurses charged hospitals and other medical facilities are not sufficiently protecting nurses healthcare workers or the public, Newsweek reported.
The protest involved the country's largest nursing union, National Nurses United, and its affiliate the California Nurses Association.
The nurses charged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "further weakened" guidance on measures to contain the virus — including rolling back protective equipment standards from N95 masks to regular surgical masks, Newsweek reported.
The group also said protocols for healthcare workers have been weakened related to the care for a patients suspected or confirmed to be coronavirus positive.
The protests took place in outside hospitals and medical centers including in Oakland and Sacramento in California, in Chicago, Illinois, and Augusta, Georgia.
"If nurses and healthcare workers aren't protected, that means patients and the public are not protected," union executive director Bonnie Castillo said, Newsweek reported.
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