A US physician working in a hospital emergency room in the state of Washington was fired after he publicly criticized the hospital’s lack of protection against COVID-19, The Seattle Times reported.

"I got a message that said, ‘Your shift has been covered,’" Ming Lin, who has worked at the PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham for 17 years, told The Seattle Times. The doctor then phoned his supervisor and was told, "You’ve been terminated."

A spokesperson for PeaceHealth St. Joseph confirmed to The Seattle Times that Lin had been fired but had no further comment.

Lin told the newspaper that his supervisors had threatened to fire him over a week ago after he spoke to reporters and made social media posts accusing the hospital where he worked of not protecting health care workers from the COVID-19 virus.

Lin said he was asked to take down his social media posts about the hospital but refused. The physician has criticized the hospital on Facebook, saying that the emergency room was crowded, that people were not being tested outside, where extra space could reduce the spread of COVID-19 and that unnecessary flu tests were being carried out, which delayed coronavirus testing that was urgently needed. Lin also pointed to difficulties in obtaining permission for coronavirus tests.