Lahore sit-ins: Oxygen supplied to hospitals for coronavirus patients amid protests

LAHORE: Police help was sought to supply oxygen in hospitals for coronavirus patients under critical care amid protests, as the city came to a halt on Monday owing to protests from a religious party.

According to the Punjab Health Department, oxygen has been provided to the hospitals in Lahore and other districts of the province for today.

The Health Department said that the oxygen was supplied under the supervision of police late at night to Lahore's Mayo Hospital, Services Hospital, Jinnah Hospital and other health facilities while a distribution van supplying oxygen to the Aziz Bhatti Hospital Gujrat was stuck in a traffic jam near Kala Shah Kaku, at the time this story was filed. 

"Efforts are made to ensure the provision of oxygen to Gujrat," the department said, adding that currently, the hospital has enough oxygen for the use of coronavirus patients.

The statement added that oxygen is supplied after every eight hours to state-run hospitals, which was disrupted due to sit-ins of a religious party causing difficulties to patients.

According to a Geo News report, there are about 1,100 coronavirus patients in various government hospitals of Lahore who need oxygen, while almost 250 patients are breathing through a ventilator.

The report had said that the situation was bad and hospitals were utilising the oxygen that was currently available to them.

Mayo Hospital's Chief Executive and in-charge of the coronavirus wards, Dr Asad Aslam, had warned hospitals would be in dire straits if oxygen cylinders were not supplied to hospitals soon.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and Secretary Health Punjab Nabeel Awan had appealed to protesters to cooperate with the authorities so that oxygen cylinders could be delivered to government hospitals in a timely fashion.