RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Six doctors and 10 nurses at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) have been isolated after coming in contact with two suspected patients of Covid-19, one of whom died on Saturday.

The deceased was a 38-year-old resident of Sargodha, while the other patient is a resident of Rawalpindi.

Six nurses in paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) were isolated earlier after they treated a child who had contracted Covid-19. The ICU in question has not been sealed yet, a hospital official said.

The official said the hospital authorities allowed his relatives to take the body to Sargodha in a private vehicle, where the burial was carried out without taking any precautionary measures.

Healthcare professionals attended to patient in ICU without PPE while his test results were awaited, hospital official says

The deceased was brought to BBH from Sargodha by his family in critical condition with difficulty in breathing. Doctors admitted him to the ICU instead of the high dependency unit. Six doctors and 10 nurses attended to the patient in different shifts without being provided personal protective equipment (PPE). In the meantime, the patient was tested for Covid-19.

After the patient died Saturday night, the relatives took the body to Sargodha without adhering to Punjab’s standard operating procedures (SOP) for suspected Covid-19 cases and waiting for the final test results.

The hospital official said doctors and nurses have been isolated as a precautionary measure. BBH’s focal personfor Covid-19Dr Mohammad Inayat, when contacted, said the hospital’s management was working with dedication and commitment and was fighting the coronavirus around the clock.

He said the test results of the deceased patient were still awaited, while the other patient had tested positive for Covid-19 and three nurses have been isolated.

Dr Inayat said both patients were brought to the surgery department, where they were referred to him with requests for screening.

“We screened both the patients, took their samples and sent them for testing in laboratories,” he said.

To a question, he said doctors and hospital staff were attending to patients according to the government’s SOPs.

“We routinely test doctors and nurses for Covid-19 before they go home after 15 days of continuous duty and when they return from 15 days of rest,” he said.

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has also directed some 26 staffers to quarantine themselves at home after they were found to have been in contact with a colleague in the tax branch who was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Chaklala Cantonment Board Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz has tested positive for the disease and is isolated at home, while RCB Vice President Malik Munir was taken to a private hospital on Saturday with Covid-19 symptoms.Also on Saturday, 37 new patients in Rawalpindi has taken the tally of Covid-19 cases to 1,616, while nine patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering.

The 146 passengers quarantined in the district have been allowed to leave after testing negative.Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood told Dawn that the number of new patients reported in the Rawalpindi division is falling, and no deaths have been reported in two days.

Islamabad

A suspected Covid-19 patient admitted to a hospital has died while 55 more cases of the disease have been reported in the capital.

Capital administration officials said that the deceased was a 40-year-old Rawalpindi resident who was brought to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on May 1 and admitted to the isolation ward.

He was tested for Covid-19, but died before the test results were received, they added.

The administration was informed of the patient’s death and the body has been kept at Pims until the test results come back, on the basis of which further steps will be taken.

The number of Covid-19 cases in Islamabad rose from 866 to 921 on Saturday, while seven patients have died and 100 have recovered. The District Health Office has traced 95 contacts of 44 patients reported the other day, officials said. Their samples have been taken for testing. All 44 of the patients are isolated at home and their contacts are quarantined, also in their homes.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2020