Hospitals in Pakistan brace for a surge in Covid-19 cases as lockdown eases

A girl sells a facemask to costumers at Pindi Food Street in Rawalpindi - FAROOQ NAEEM /AFP
A girl sells a facemask to costumers at Pindi Food Street in Rawalpindi - FAROOQ NAEEM /AFP
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Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

A surge in Covid-19 cases is predicted to sweep through Pakistan within the coming weeks, potentially overwhelming hospitals, doctors and health officials have warned.

Hospitals are braced for a spike in both cases and deaths after a widespread relaxation of lockdown rules fed through into more gatherings, mingling and parties for the Eid holiday.

Doctors told The Telegraph they feared the spare capacity of beds and ventilators would soon be used up as hospital admissions rose relentlessly and ever higher numbers of staff were taken sick.

The warning came as the prime minister, Imran Khan, said the country had to ease restrictions because of their financial toll, but acknowledged that deaths would rise.

The former cricketer called on Pakistanis to abide by social distancing rules, but also said: "The world has agreed, the richest countries have come to the conclusion that the virus will spread no matter what. Nothing can be done about it. The virus will spread and our death toll will also rise […] I have been telling you that from day one.”

People sit at tables in the Pindi food street market in Rawalpindi as lockdown eases - FAROOQ NAEEM /AFP
People sit at tables in the Pindi food street market in Rawalpindi as lockdown eases - FAROOQ NAEEM /AFP

A random testing study conducted by Punjab government has also cast further doubt on the official figures for cases, suggesting the true toll is many times higher.

The study conducted early last month found six per cent of people tested positive and estimated that the city of Lahore had 670,000 cases alone. Until now the whole province has only recorded around 28,000 cases.

“There are still empty oxygen beds and ventilators but the trend in cases shows that very soon, our hospitals will get overwhelmed with patients," warned Dr Zubair Zahir, chairman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial doctors’ association.

Prof Dr Ziaul Haq, vice chancellor at  Khyber Medical University Peshawar, said he also feared hospitals would soon run out of facilities.

“The attitude of the community clearly ignoring the basic public health interventions of physical-distancing, hand and respiratory hygiene and is obvious from the upward infection trends. If it continues the hospitals may overrun sooner or later,” he said.

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While Pakistan had moved quickly to lock down and impose travel restrictions, the failure to persuade people to abide by distancing rules was taking its toll, he said. “The lockdown was released with a hope that community will observe the standard operating procedures, which clearly, they didn’t. Lockdown cannot be replaced with doing nothing.”

He said the government's messaging had also been undermined by conspiracy and hearsay. “Some of the famous ones are: you will get a poison injection if you go to hospital, the government gets funds for every dead body; it’s a foreign conspiracy; local remedies are the only cure; no man below 40 has died; with summer it will disappear, the mortality is negligible here, we are immune to it and so on,” he said.

High numbers of medical staff being taken sick meant fewer staff would be available as the peak hits, doctors warned. Dr Muhammad Rafiq, a medical officer at a Peshawar hospital said cases had begun streaming into the provincial capital from more rural districts.

“The situation has been very bad in the past few days as cases are coming and deaths are increasing,” he said.

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