92 health professionals test positive for COVID-19 in just two days

Ninety-two health professionals have tested positive for COVID-19 across Pakistan in two days, increasing the total number of infected doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff to 345, said officials on Saturday.

A national health ministry official said the number was 253 on Thursday, but the count had hit 345 by Saturday. Doctors are the most affected class of health professionals when it comes to novel coronavirus infections.

Over 165 doctors across the country are under treatment after they tested positive for COVID-19, followed by 131 paramedical and support staff as well as 41 nurses.

Besides these confirmed cases, more than 1,500 doctors, nurses, paramedics and those with whom they came into contact are in quarantine, and many are waiting for their test results after coming into contact with the health professionals who have already tested positive, added the official.

The official said that most of the cases of the novel coronavirus infection among health professionals have been reported from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, while a few cases have also been reported from Sindh and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

COVID-19 has already claimed the lives of four health professionals: ENT specialist Prof Muhammad Javed who died on Saturday at Peshawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex, Dr Abdul Qadir Soomro from Karachi, Dr Osama Riaz from Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and a senior nurse at Gujrat’s Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital.

Providing the details of the health professionals afflicted with the novel coronavirus, health ministry officials said 93 have been infected in Punjab: 55 doctors, 16 nurses and 22 paramedics and support staff.

They said the Nishtar Medical Hospital in Multan and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore are the worst affected health facilities in Punjab, as most of the infected health professionals in that province work at those two facilities.

They also said that 72 health professionals have been found infected with COVID-19 in Sindh: 28 doctors, 17 nurses and 27 paramedics and support staff, adding that most of the affected work at various public and private hospitals in Karachi.

The officials said doctors, nurses and paramedics of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the Civil Hospital Karachi, the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Accident Emergency & Trauma Centre, the Indus Hospital, the Ojha Campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences, the Aga Khan University Hospital and the Liaquat National Hospital have been found infected with the virus.

They said that 72 health professionals are infected with COVID-19 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP): 35 doctors, six nurses and 31 paramedics and support staff, adding that KP also witnessed the tragic death of one of their senior professors on Saturday due to the virus.

They also said that most of the COVID-19 cases in KP are from the Hayatabad Medical Complex, the Lady Reading Hospital and the Khyber Teaching Hospital, while some cases have also been reported from Abbottabad and other cities of the province.

The officials said that 55 health professionals have been found infected with the novel coronavirus in Balochistan: 32 doctors, three nurses and 20 paramedics and support staff, adding that most of the affected are from the Bolan Medical Complex and the Civil Hospital Quetta.

They said that 32 health professionals, mostly from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and the Poly Clinic Islamabad, have been found infected with COVID-19 in the ICT: 13 doctors, seven nurses and 12 paramedics and support staff.

They also said that in GB, most of the health professionals infected with the coronavirus include paramedics and support staff, whose number is 16, while the one doctor who was found infected died during treatment. In Azad Jammu & Kashmir, four health professionals — one doctor and three paramedical staff members — have been found infected with the novel coronavirus, added the ministry officials.