No suspect of coronavirus so far reported in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi : Not a single suspect of disease caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) has so far been reported at the public sector healthcare facilities in the district nor the Corona Management Centre established at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology two weeks back has so far received any suspect or confirmed patient of illness caused by novel coronavirus 2019.

To date, the CMC at RIU that has a capacity of 100 beds has received not a single suspect or confirmed patient of COVID-19, said Medical Superintendent at RIU Dr. Khalid Randhawa while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He said the CMC has already arranged sufficient quantity of medicines and staff to deal with COVID-19 cases if, God forbid, an outbreak hits the region. The government has already provided us services of as many as 225 nurses and a number of doctors while the CMC has also arranged doctors from the three teaching hospitals in town, he said.

The CMC is also going to induct doctors so that in case of any emergency, we would be able to handle the situation. We are going to conduct interviews for the new induction, he said.

He added the Punjab health department and the government has become highly sensitive on the matter. The Punjab chief minister Sardar Usman Buzdar visited CMC on Friday to evaluate arrangements made for management of patients and asked whether the CMC is capable of expanding its services. We have informed the CM that CMC has a 100-bed capacity that may be enhanced to 200 beds in case of any emergency, said Dr. Randhawa.

It is important that none of the three allied hospitals in town including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital has so far received any suspect or confirmed patient of COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus identified in Wuhan city, Hubei Province of China on 9th January 2020 has claimed a total of 5445 lives around the globe till Saturday evening while infected a total of 149357 persons including 80824 in China.

It is important that in last one week, the rate of infection in China has decreased to a great extent as only 173 new patients have been reported in China since March 7 though 119 confirmed patients of COVID-19 lost their lives in China in last seven days. As many as 65569 confirmed patients have recovered while 12066 were undergoing treatment in China on Saturday evening.

On the other hand, well over 45600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported outside China with 1961 deaths in last one week making it one the greatest threats around the globe.

In Pakistan, a total of 30 patients have so far been confirmed for COVID-19 though the disease has not claimed any life till filing of this report in the country.