All public sector hospitals dealing with COVID-19 patients

Rawalpindi : Almost all public sector hospitals including the three allied hospitals in town have been engaged in dealing with coronavirus illness cases though District Headquarters Hospital has allocated the least number of beds, 19 for accommodating COVID-19 patients.

Earlier, it was planned that designated healthcare facilities including Corona Management Centre at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Benazir Bhutto Hospital would accommodate COVID-19 patients and suspects but after sharp increase in number of cases, Pakistan Red Crescent Society Hospital Rawalpindi and a field hospital at Shahbaz Sharif Sports Complex (Sports Complex Field Hospital) was added to the list.

Due to ever-increasing heavy burden of patients in last two months, Holy Family Hospital also started screening and management of corona cases and at present, the DHQ Hospital is also dealing with the patients suffering from illness caused by 2019 novel coronavirus.

According to administrations at Rawalpindi medical University and allied hospitals, a total of 795 beds are available at the six healthcare facilities including RIU, BBH, HFH, SCFH, RCH and DHQ Hospital of which nearly half of the beds are occupied.

According to details, the RIU has a capacity of 240 beds for corona management; the BBH has 196 beds, HFH has 100 beds, RCH has 120 beds and SCFH has 120 beds while DHQ Hospital is operating 19 beds though bed occupancy in it is four to six beds.

Data collected by ‘The News’ has revealed that out of nearly 370 patients admitted in the six healthcare facilities, some 330 were undergoing treatment at RIU, BBH and HFH on Saturday.

According to the Punjab health department, however, as many as 727 confirmed patients of COVID-19 were undergoing treatment at the public and private healthcare facilities in Rawalpindi district on Saturday that may need correction as the private setups have been operating only a limited number of beds for COVID-19 patients.

It is worth mentioning here that the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak has convinced the health department to engage all public sector healthcare facilities in town that has put visitors to the hospitals at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 according to many health experts.

Meanwhile, the virus claimed another four lives in the district while no death was reported from Islamabad Capital Territory in last 24 hours. As many as 338 new patients were tested positive from ICT in last 24 hours and 91 from Rawalpindi district.

The total number of confirmed patients so far reported from Rawalpindi is 4578 of which 2185 have been discharged after treatment and 212 have died of the disease, said Executive District Officer (Health) Rawalpindi Dr. Sohail Ahmed Chaudhary while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He added that as many as 727 confirmed patients of COVID-19 have been undergoing treatment at both the private and public sector healthcare facilities in town while 1453 confirmed patients are in isolation at their homes. Another 5200 persons have been under quarantine at their homes.

Meanwhile, according to the official figure released by the National Command and Control Centre, confirmation of another 338 patients positive for COVID-19 from ICT in last 24 hours took total number of confirmed patients from federal capital to 10,279 while the disease has so far claimed 95 lives in ICT.