Anxiety is on the rise among health professionals of the country as 10 healthcare providers, including five doctors, at least one nurse and other paramedics and hospital support staff, have so far lost their lives due to the COVID-19 epidemic throughout the country, federal authorities told The News on Monday.
“With the sad demise of Dr Furqan-ul-Haq on Sunday in Karachi, the number of healthcare workers who died of the novel coronavirus across the country has reached 10,” an official of the federal government said.
Infections in five days
The federal health authorities claim that the novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly at the healthcare facilities in the country and during the last five days, a total of 109 healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and other support staff, contracted the disease, causing an immense workload on their colleagues.
“As many as 509 healthcare providers, including 263 doctors, 75 nurses and 171 paramedics and other support staff, have been affected and forced to live in home isolation or are under treatment at hospitals. We have seen 109 healthcare providers contracting the disease during the last five days, which is an extremely alarming situation,” a federal government official said.
Of the total 509 healthcare infected with COVID-19, 144 caught the disease while performing their duties in critical care units for the coronavirus patients while 365 contracted the virus at wards, out-patient departments and other clinics, the official added and explained that the figure of healthcare providers in the country affected by COVID-19 was 399 by April 29 at the start of the last week, but it reached 509 in a week.
The official said none of these health care providers were on life support at the moment and a majority of them with many of their contacts had been in isolation while dozens of others were awaiting their test results.
“Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is the worst-hit area with respect to the number of healthcare providers infected with coronavirus where 128 healthcare providers have tested positive, followed by Balochistan with 108 positive healthcare workers. 102 healthcare providers have been infected in Punjab and 97 in Sindh. In Islamabad, 50 healthcare providers have been affected with coronavirus, 20 in Gilgit-Baltistan and four in AJK.
Providing a break-up of those healthcare providers, the official said at least 263 doctors contracted coronavirus, of whom 69 were from Balochistan, followed by 68 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 58 from Punjab, 43 from Sindh, 23 from Islamabad, and one each from Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The highest number of nurses affected with COVID-19 were in Punjab where 21 nurses had been found infected with coronavirus, followed by 20 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 17 in Sindh, 12 in Islamabad and four in Balochistan.
Similarly, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had 40 paramedics and other support staff affected with coronavirus, followed by 37 in Sindh, 35 in Balochistan, 23 in Punjab, 18 in Balochistan, 15 in Islamabad and three in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
Hospitalised workers
Federal officials informed The News that around 130 healthcare providers suffering from COVID-19 were undergoing treatment at hospitals at the moment but none of them was on life support anywhere in the country.
“The highest number of healthcare providers hospitalised at the moment are 65 in Sindh, followed by 50 in Punjab, six in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, seven in Gilgit-Baltistan and two in Islamabad,” the official maintained. Similarly, around 250 healthcare providers are in isolation, including 98 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 97 in Balochistan, 41 in Islamabad and 14 in Punjab, the official added.
Recovered
A total of 119 healthcare providers have also recovered from COVID-19 and are performing duties at their respective healthcare facilities in the country.
Among the recovered doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff, 38 were from Punjab, 28 from Sindh, 22 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 11 from Gilgit-Baltistan, 10 from Balochistan, six from Islamabad and four from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.