Anger over allowing coronavirus patients to walk freely

KARACHI: Outraged at federal government for failure to detect people infected with Coronavirus at airports and other entry points, Sindh government on Thursday decided to ask the federal authorities to make provincial and local administration officials part of the screening process of the people arriving in the country after a young man, who had returned to Karachi from Iran last week, was found infected with the COVID-19, officials said.

“The Sindh government is not satisfied with the screening arrangements of the federal government at the airports and other entry points as we fear that several infected persons would have entered our cities undetected, which is evident from the case of Yahya Afridi. We have decided to ask the center to include out experts in the screening process to make it more efficient and result-oriented and to prevent the entry of any more Coronavirus patients,” a member of the Sindh Task Force on Coronavirus told The News on Thursday.

The Sindh government authorities were also critical of federal government for offering ‘no support at all’ in dealing with the threat of coronavirus, saying they were facing an acute shortage of PPE (personal protection equipment), hazmat suits, relevant equipment and expertise but so far federal government had not come up with any assistance whatsoever for the provincial government. Pakistan had confirmed its two positive cases in the country on Wednesday, one each in Karachi and Islamabad, who had traveled to Iran as pilgrims in the current month. Earlier Pakistan had suspended flight operations with Iran in addition to closing borders with the neighbouring country where over two dozen people have so far been died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the coronavirus. The task force formed by the Sindh CM Syed Murad Ali Shah met on Thursday evening with him in the chair and decided that all those who had traveled to Iran during last one and half month would be tracked and screened for Coronavirus, while the federal government would be advised to keep all the travelers from Iran in quarantine for 14 days before allowing them to enter the country.

The health authorities further said no more Corona positive case was detected among 14 samples analyzed in the lab of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Thursday including three close relatives of a young man, who was found infected with the COVID-19 and added that all those suspected patients who had been kept in the isolation ward at the DUHS and were allowed to leave after their tests came negative. “None of the 14 suspected patients, whose samples were sent to the lab for detection of Coronavirus have been found positive today including the mother, father and a sister of a young man, Yahya Jaffri who was found infected yesterday.

The infected patient is undergoing treatment at an isolation ward and his condition is stable,” an official of the Sindh Task Force on Coronavirus said. The task force member claimed that as many as 1,449 people went to Iran for pilgrimage, of which 40 percent of them were tracked by the provincial government and they are being contacted by the health authorities to shift them to the quarantine, adding that their samples were also being drawn for lab analysis. The Sindh health department has identified a 50-bed hospital in Gadap Town, several kilometers away from the city center with a very low patient input, which would be equipped and used to treat coronavirus infected patients, the health authorities said and added that trained staff with complete Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Hazmat suits, medicines, and machinery would be deployed at the hospital to treat the infected patients. “According to experts, it is extremely unwise to treat corona positive patients along with other patients so we have identified a separate hospital, away from the center to keep the patients who would be tested positive for the Coronavirus”, the health department official said and added that it would take some more days to properly equip and prepare the coronavirus treatment facility for housing the positive patients. In the meanwhile, 15 suspected cases of Coronavirus were shifted to various hospitals in Sukkur, Larkana and adjoining areas after they returned from Iran recently and had symptoms of disease, health officials said adding that as many as 155 pilgrims returned from Iran this month who were approached and interviewed by the health department officials to screen them for coronavirus.Meanwhile, officials maintained that they have established an emergency control room to deal with coronavirus at the Commissioner’s Office Karachi which can be approached on telephone numbers 021-99204405, 021-99206565, 021-99203443, 021-99204405 and 0316-0111712 while people can also call on federal government’s helpline (1166) for the helpline.