<\/p>\n
ISLAMABAD: With 5,500 Covid-19 cases and around 100 reported deaths across the country, the medical fraternity fears that the health sector may collapse due to the large numbers of healthcare providers having been infected.<\/p>\n
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) urged the government to change its policy that only doctors working in quarantine facilities and isolation rooms are entitled to personal protective equipment (PPE), arguing that all health care providers they are equally vulnerable.<\/p>\n
The association has also told doctors to ignore self-isolation suggestions if they have failed, as this would put thousands of patients at risk.<\/p>\n
PMA Secretary General Dr. Qaisar Sajjad told Dawn that the association warned in January that the situation could deteriorate, but the government ignored it.<\/p>\n
"It is regrettable that to date, the government is unwilling to accept that all health care providers need PPE and that they are also vulnerable," he said.<\/p>\n
\nThe government urged to change the policy of providing only PPE to healthcare providers working in isolation and quarantine facilities<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
On Sunday, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of National Health Services, Dr. Zafar Mirza, said that health care providers should end the "irrational" use of PPE. He said that such equipment, and in particular the N-95 masks, were being used incorrectly and that only doctors who need N-95 masks should use them, as irrational use would be a loss for those who need them.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sajjad said that 38 health care providers, including 17 doctors, tested positive for Covid-19 at Nishtar Medical Hospital in Multan.<\/p>\n
"Initially, a doctor in the nephrology department contracted the virus from a kidney patient who had no Covid-19 symptoms, and then the virus began to spread throughout the hospital," he said.<\/p>\n
He said six doctors and eight paramedics tested positive at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Trauma Center and Civil Hospital in Karachi. Both hospitals also have 13 suspected patients.<\/p>\n
Two other doctors tested positive at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, and one doctor at Liaquat National Hospital who participated in Tableeghi Jamaat ijtima also tested positive, he said.<\/p>\n
"An otolaryngology professor who works at the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar was placed on a ventilator due to Covid-19. In Lahore, a gynecologist who performed a cesarean delivery learned that the woman's husband had just returned from abroad, so he suggested to the couple that they do the Covid-19 test. Both husband and wife tested positive and the gynecologist was quarantined. This shows that doctors who work in other departments are also vulnerable, "he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sajjad added that several confirmed patients are asymptomatic, meaning they do not have any symptoms, adding: "Such patients can transfer the disease to more people."<\/p>\n
He said some doctors have suggested that they isolate themselves to protect themselves, but the PMA has appealed not to do so because doing so would lead to a collapse of the entire health system.<\/p>\n
"We fear that the situation could worsen in the coming days, as 300 cases of Covid-19 were reported across the country on Monday," he said.<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Monday, Dr. Mirza said that 52 percent of Covid-19 cases in the country were the result of local transmission, so it was decided to start proactive testing.<\/p>\n
Initially, he said, the National Institute of Health was the only laboratory that had the ability to test Covid-19, but that number has now grown to 27.<\/p>\n
"Seven more labs will be operational in a few days," he said, adding: "There was also a problem with the availability of test kits, but now we have 600,000 kits and by April 15 that number will exceed one million. We are currently conducting 3,000 tests every day, but at the end of the month we will start to perform between 20,000 and 25,000 tests every day, as we require 600,000 test kits every month. "<\/p>\n
Posted in Dawn, April 14, 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\nSource: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1548980\/association-warns-of-health-sector-collapse-as-medical-professionals-contract-covid-19<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD: With 5,500 Covid-19 cases and around 100 reported deaths across the country, the medical fraternity fears that the health sector may collapse due to the large numbers of healthcare providers having been infected. The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) urged the government to change its policy that only doctors working in quarantine facilities and isolation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11828],"tags":[19083],"class_list":["post-15802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan","tag-coronavirus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}