(Peshawar) The provincial government has ordered
the medical teaching institutions to enhance the number of Covid-19 beds on
emergency basis as hospitalization due to coronavirus increased by 100 per cent
during the past one week. Health officials said that the number of patients on
ventilators had risen by 200 per cent over the last fortnight. ‘Health minister
has instructed the administration of Khyber Teaching Hospital; Hayatabad
Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital to enhance the number of beds for
Covid-19 patients by 50 per cent immediately after continuous spike in number
of serious patients;’ they added. They said that situation in other districts
with regard to availability of Covid-19 beds was satisfactory but bed occupancy
by coronavirus patients in Peshawar-based hospitals was increasing and if the
situation remained the same; there would be shortage of beds. A report of World
Health Organization on Sunday said that Covid-19 positivity rose to 17.9 per
cent; an alarming level which prompted the government to issue an alert to the
districts of Swat, Abbottabad and Mansehra to be prepared to cope with the
patients’ load.
Hospitalization
due to virus registers 100pc spike
Peshawar
Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar told that they had imposed smart
lockdown in 21 areas on recommendation of health department and would continue the strategy to
prevent virus transmission.
‘District
administration is checking markets, hotels, wedding halls and other public
places to ensure adherence to SOPs and contain the infection in the second
weave;’ he said. The official said that there would be more lockdowns as it was
the only way to safeguard the people against the virus. ‘We are in close
contact with health department regarding Covid-19 cases. The hotspot areas will
face lockdown as a strategy of the government;’ he added. HMC has 30 patients a
week ago and has 97 on Sunday. Officials said that they increased beds as well
as human resources in view of spike in number of serious people. KTH; which has
25 patients a week ago; now houses 90 patients. The hospital is also scaling up
its admission capacity in view of the number of patients. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
has allocated 5,440 beds for Covid-19 patients in the public sector hospitals
of the province but the patients continue to visit Peshawar-based hospitals. It
is likely to cause shortage of space. Officials said that at present 29
patients were on ventilators as compared to only 11 a week ago and the
situation was becoming worse because there was lack of adherence to
precautionary measures that might further increase number of seriously-ill
people. The province has total of 340 admitted patients in different districts.
Most of the district hospitals have ventilators and state of the art intensive
care units but still the health department is asking the district health
administrations to further enhance their capacity as well as level of services
so that the patients avoid visiting to Peshawar. The province recorded 502
cases on Saturday; the highest number of cases in a single day since June; with
two deaths. So far, 1,327 people have passed away due to the pandemic since its
onset while the number of infected people has reached 44,599; according to a
report of health department. The number of active cases has risen to 3, 037 in
the province. The province has 3.02 per cent case fatality rate (CFR) against
the nationwide 2.05 per cent. CFR in Peshawar is 3.8 per cent. According to
officials the second wave of the pandemic can prove more lethal as people have
got relaxed because the first wave hasn’t caused more deaths and cases.
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