PESHAWAR: Covid-19 pandemic claimed four more lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including a local leader of JUI-F in Mansehra and a newspaper hawker, raising the number of deaths in the province to 39.

Three of the patients died in Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar whereas the fourth one passed away in Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad.

Official sources confirmed that Mansehra JUI-F deputy chief Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz expired on Tuesday in Ayub Medical Complex (AMC), Abbottabad.

The deceased, who was admitted to King Abdullah Teaching Hospital’s quarantine ward after he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, was shifted to AMC in critical condition on April 10. Mr Shah was kept in quarantine wards on his return from Quetta.

Similarly, a newspaper hawker identified as Khalilur Rehman, a resident of Charsadda district, died on Tuesday morning in Lady Reading Hospital. He was 60.

Number of patients reaches 800 in the province

Later in the day, the deceased was laid to rest in Charsadda while observing the relevant SOPs. The deceased was residing in Peshawar.

Moreover, a woman identified as Hussan Jana, hailing from Peshawar, and a man identified as Haji Chasti Gul of Mohmand tribal district, also died in LRH.

Meanwhile, the city’s medical teaching institutions including Khyber Teaching Hospital and Lady Reading Hospital are undeterred by the threats posed to their staff by Covid-19 infection and have vowed to continue treating the patients as the province-wide tally of patients reached 800.

As of April 13, the province detected 56 more confirmed cases compared to 47 a day before on April 12. With 35 deaths a day earlier, the case fatality rate is also highest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Now it is 4.4 per cent.

The fatality rate was 4.6 per cent on Sunday, 4.4 per cent on Saturday and 3.5 per cent on Friday night. It is increasing day by day but the local health workers continue to battle the virus with professional zeal.

The province has recovery rate of 20.4 per cent, almost similar to the nationwide rate of patients healed so far from the virus.

Amid surge in confirmed cases, the city-based hospitals continue to strengthen their response level besides treating the non-Covid-19 cases at the accident and emergency departments as the OPD remained closed as part of the strategy to enforce social distancing rule.

“More than 12 of our staff members have contracted infection from Covid-19 patients but they are in high spirit. We received the first patient on February 22. So far we have received 102 cases with confirmation of 14 and most of them have recovered,” Farhad Khan, the KTH spokesman, told this scribe.

He said that only one death was recorded by the hospital. “To ensure safety of our frontline health workers, the Board of Governors has already approved and directed for their special care so they can ensure effective management of possible and active patients,” he added.

Mr Khan said that 20 private rooms in the hospitals were dedicated as isolation area for the staff deployed in triage. Besides, a 17-bed fully equipped high dependency isolation unit was fully functional with a backup of another 46-bed unit for Covid-19 patients.

As health emergency has already been declared. The hospital director, Dr Mohammad Zafar Afridi, and the medical director, Prof Amir Azhar, regularly monitored the activities round the clock, he said.

The province’s biggest health facility LRH also strives to admit serious patients to the high dependency unit.

The hospital has a 26-bed corona ward for specialised management.

On Tuesday, LRH Dean Prof Abdul Latif Khan, Director Dr Khalid Masud and others held a live video conference with Beijing-based team of doctors and shared the experiences regarding management of Covid-19 patients. They received tips about the new medical techniques from their Chinese colleagues and sought their advice to further improve their work.

Meanwhile, about 20 doctors from whom swabs had been taken for coming into contact with the director public health, who tested positive for the virus on Monday, turned to be negative for the pandemic.

The health department also deployed 202 doctors, who were appointed on six-month contract, to perform duty during the epidemic. A notification issued here asked the doctors to join their duty immediately in the districts to provide effective services to the people.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2020