LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab claims that at least 106 health professionals have died of infection till date while fighting as frontline soldiers in the fight against coronavirus.
YDA President Dr Salman Haseeb Thursday shared the details of healthcare professionals, who fell victim to coronavirus all over the country. As many as 56 healthcare professionals died of the virus in Punjab including 52 doctors, three nurses and one paramedic; 22 in Sindh including 21 doctors and one nurse; 15 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa including 12 doctors, two nurses and one paramedic; nine in Balochistan including six doctors and three paramedics; two doctors in Gilgit-Baltistan, one doctor in Azad Kashmir, and two operation theatre (OT) technicians at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad.
According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department daily report, 4,756 testes were conducted of healthcare professionals, out of which 1,100 were diagnosed with the virus in Punjab, with an overall positivity ratio of 23 per cent.
The YDA leaders alleged that the P&SHD had failed to declare the number of deaths among healthcare professionals in Punjab. YDA Punjab President Dr Salman Haseeb, Chairman Dr Khizar Hayat and General Secretary Dr Qasim Awan, while confirming substantial decline in ratio of COVID-19 positivity among healthcare professionals, called upon the Punjab government to acknowledge and recognise the services of frontline warriors in the fight against coronavirus.
They regretted that the Punjab government did not grant “Shaheed status” to the martyred healthcare professionals or “Shaheed package” to the bereaved families. “The Punjab government must announce risk allowance for all doctors, nurses and paramedical staff,” they said, and demanded that services of all ad hoc doctors should be regularized, like in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.