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22 more succumb to corona

By Agencies & Amer Malik & Mushtaq Yusufzai
May 05, 2020

22 more succumb to corona

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: Twenty-two more deaths from novel coronavirus took the toll to 486 on Monday.

An official of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on coronavirus said that the Covid-19 caseload in country had reached 21,452 with 1,083 new cases reported during the last 24 hours.

Some 5,590 patients have been sent to their homes after complete recovery. The official said that total 212,511 tests had been conducted, including 9,522 in the last 24 hours. He said 8,103 cases were reported from Sindh, 7,646 from Punjab, 3,288 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 1,321 from Balochistan, 71 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir(AJK), 372 from Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 415 from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

He said 136 deaths had been reported from Punjab, 137 from Sindh, 185 from KP, three from GB, 21 from Balochistan and four from ICT.

He added that1 555 patients had recovered in Sindh, 811 in KP, 197 in Balochistan, 44 in AJK, 260 in GB, 2,667 in Punjab and 56 in ICT.

He said local transmission was reported high in new confirmed patients while some had travelling history.

He added that 717 hospitals had been working across the country with Covid-19 treatment facilities while still many patients were admitted to other hospitals across the country.

In Punjab the death of five more Covid-19 patients raised death toll to 126 in Punjab, while confirmed cases raced to 7,646 with the addition of 152 new infections in the province.

Out of the 126 Covid-19 fatalities in Punjab so far, 58 occurred in Lahore, 21 in Rawalpindi, 16 in Multan, seven in Faisalabad, six in Gujranwala, three each in Rahim Yar Khan and Gujrat, two each in Sargodha, Toba Tek Singh and Narowal and one each in Bahawalpur, Attock, Rajanpur, Sahiwal, Jhang and Hafizabad.

Of confirmed Covid-19 patients, 1,926 are preachers of Tablighi Jamaat, 768 pilgrims returning from Iran, 86 prisoners in nine districts and 4,866 citizens who either had travel history or fell victim to local transmission.

From amongst common citizens, the highest number of cases has been reported from Lahore where number reached 2,532.

As per focal person for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, so far 96,854 tests had been performed in the province. As many as 2,680 patients have recovered and sent to their homes. Presently, 25 serious patients are under treatment at high dependency units in public sector hospitals.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, eight more human losses caused by Covid-19 took the death toll to 180 in the province, the highest case fatality rate in the country recorded at 5.8 per cent.

Since Peshawar is the most affected place in the province, where 111 people had lost lives so far, out of 180, the case fatality rate in the city is 9.3 per cent, of confirmed cases 1197, the highest in the province and the country.

Meanwhile, eight more nurses were tested positive for coronavirus in KP, according to Young Doctors Association (YDA).

The YDA, in a statement, said that 48 members of the nursing staff had been tested positive so far in the province, in which 35 are under treatment in different hospitals in KP.

In Sindh, seven more people, including a doctor, died of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours in Karachi.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Monday 417 new cases emerged in the province during the last 24 hours, including 371 in Karachi, in a day.

“Seven people have died due to the coronavirus in Karachi. All deceased were males, aged 65, 64, 75, 52, 57, 43 and 79 years,” the CM said.

“As many as 371 people have tested positive for the Covid-19 in Karachi during the last 24 hours,” Murad said in his daily message on Monday.

The CM said the Covid-19 situation was alarming in the province as “we have detected 417 cases when conducted 2,571 tests, which constitutes 16.2 per cent of the tests.

“The government has tested 66,623 blood samples so far and diagnosed 7,882 cases, which are 11.83 per cent,” he said.

“The coronavirus has so far claimed 137 lives in Sindh. The death ratio has been recorded at 1.7 per cent of the total patients,” he added.

At present, he said, 6,116 patients are under treatment. Out of them, he added, 4,994 patients had been kept in home isolation, 615 in isolation centres and 507 in different hospitals.

The CM said 79 patients were in critical condition and of them, 16 are on ventilators. “This shows that 16 per cent of the patients are on ventilators,” he said. He urged people to observe social distancing and follow the SOPs issued by the government.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza Monday said effective Covid-19 combat system was in place to mitigate pandemic in the country.

During a video-link meeting with Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki, Mirza said all possible measures were being adopted to control Covid-19 to avoid further load on already burdened health system of the country.

The meeting was held to share and get help from experiences of each other.

The Iranian minister related the steps taken by his government to control the virus. He appreciated Pakistan’s concrete steps in fight against coronavirus.

Mirza said National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) had been established in Pakistan to monitor corona situation on regular basis. He said the government had prepared standard operating procedures (SOPs), which were being shared for their implementation at different levels.

Meanwhile, the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) has closed its Gynaecology Department, the largest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for an indefinite period after its 35 staff members tested positive for coronavirus.

"It was a difficult decision to shut down the entire Gynae Department that used to provide services to patients from all over in the province," said an official of the LRH. Besides an assistant professor, 14 trainee medical officers, three house officers, two head nurses, and other staff tested positive for Covid-19.

The closure of the Gynae Department will deprive a large number of patients from getting quality services. In KP, it is stated to be the largest and well-equipped Gynae Department with three units comprising 230 beds. Daily 350-400 patients would come to the Gynae Department for seeking treatment.

The operation theatre of the department would always be overcrowded as a large number of patients were referred to it from all over the province. The department admitted 120 patients daily for treatment. It is the busiest departments of LRH as the doctors have to facilitate 20-30 C-sections and 50-60 deliveries in 24 hours.

According to the LRH administration, the decision to shut down the Gynae Department was taken after recent investigations of gynae staff in which some of them were initially tested positive.

It was decided to conduct tests of other staff of the Gynae Department as well and it was learnt that most of them had contracted the virus. Sources in the LRH administration said that the number of infected patients was more than the officially notified. "There are multiple theories about how the virus spread to the doctors and other staff. Some said they contracted the virus from patients brought to them in emergency and the patients either didn't know about their disease or then kept it secret from the doctors," said an official of the hospital administration.

Pleading anonymity, he said the second theory was that non-technical staff, mostly ward orderlies and female assistants or midwives working in the Gynae Department for years had spread the virus. "Honestly speaking, there is no proper mechanism in LRH that is the largest public sector hospital in the province on how to handle coronavirus patients. The Dean, MD and HD all are helpless to make independent decisions," said an official.

In the LRH, almost every member of the faculty is scared and going through serious mental stress these days due to a host of issues. The hospital administration is perturbed over the high mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in the hospital. It issued show-cause notices to certain doctors dealing with coronavirus patients.

"In the rest of the world, the doctors and health workers are saluted for their services to patients in this critical time. In LRH, the case is different, here the doctors are issued show-cause notices as to explain as to why mortality rate was high," said one member of the faculty.

Pleading anonymity, he said "if some people in LRH came to know that I had spoken to you, they will immediately fire me, even though I am senior among the faculty members." He said he had never worked in such a frustrating environment before.

"We are doctors and are supposed to treat the patients. We worked under the worst security situation by treating victims of suicide attacks and bomb explosions, but there was not frustration and mental stress that we are facing today," said the faculty member.

Another faculty member had similar reservations. He said each of the faculty member was supposed to see 50 plus coronavirus patients in one round. Then the same person needs to do documentation of all these patients by filing numerous documents and then facing humiliation at the hands of a person who himself never touched a single patient.

"We are human beings and have certain requirements. Would you believe, I worked for 10 hours nonstop and even missed prayers. For the Iftar, I had to get some food from the canteen and ate out surrounded by patients, most of them Covid-19," said the faculty member. He said there were around 200 clerks but they were not supposed to help the doctors with documentation.

Also, according to the faculty members, one major reason behind the high mortality rate is the lack of proper management of dealing coronavirus patients.

"Would you believe, most of the senior doctors got their names removed from duty rota of Covid-19 patients and made the trainees medical officers and nursing staff to attend to them," he said. He complained the junior doctors treating the Covid-19 patients did not have the personal protection equipment to prevent themselves from getting infected.

According to the LRH media manager, Mohammad Asim, all the doctors are given necessary equipment to deal with coronavirus patients. "Our staff is well-equipped and we do care about all of employees but it is a large hospital where patients are brought from everywhere in emergency. You can't refuse to treat a patient needing medical cover and that could be the reason that our staff members contracted the virus," he said.