A Russian nurse disciplined for wearing only lingerie beneath a transparent protective gown is afraid of losing her job after images taken by patients went viral.

Colleagues, doctors and politicians have rushed to her defence, accusing hospital bosses in the city of Tula of failing to provide her with correct PPE for working on at the COVID 19 ward. They said she was not provided with proper scrubs to wear underneath the thin gown, which was also too thin to offer proper protection from the virus. It comes after the medic, who has not been publicly identified, said she was ‘too hot’ underneath the gown and did not realise how transparent it was.

The backlash comes after officials at Tula Hospital said they would take disciplinary action against the nurse for violating uniform codes, without specifying what the punishment will be.

Male patients on the ward said they had ‘no complaints’ about the uniform, but admitted there was ‘some embarrassment’.

‘Now she is under big stress,’ a colleague told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.