Zimbabwe police have arrested more than a dozen nurses and union representatives protesting against poor pay.

The nurses are demanding to be paid in US dollars, saying that inflation, which is running at nearly 800%, was eroding their salaries.

“At least 13 of our members and union leaders were arrested during the demonstration at Harare hospital,” the Zimbabwe Nurses Association said.

“They are in police cells as we speak but we don’t know what charges they are facing,” the association’s president Enock Dongo told AFP news agency.

The union said they had been told that the arrested health workers would appear in court on Tuesday.

The union, which represents around 15,000 state nurses, had last week called on members to go on strike over the low pay.

The demonstrations came at a time Covid-19 cases are rising in the southern African nation.

The country has recorded 716 coronavirus cases including eight deaths so far.