PESHAWAR: Death toll due to Covid-19 infection reached 773 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as 18 more, including a leader of Awami National Party, fell prey to the pandemic on Thursday amid efforts by health department to dedicate newly-built Peshawar Institute of Cardiology and Institute of Hepatology for the critical-ill coronavirus patients.

ANP vice president and former MPA Khalil Abbas Khattak passed away due to the infection in Islamabad-based hospital, a press release said. ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan expressed sympathies with the family of the deceased and termed his demise a major setback to the party.

The health department is facing extreme shortage of space at the hospitals to accommodate seriously-ill Covid-19 patients and after lackluster response from the medical teaching institutions (MTIs) to dedicate one of the hospitals for coronavirus, it has decided to go for alternate ways and arrange more beds for the patients.

The government wanted to dedicate one of the MTIs for Covid-19 patients like Police Services Hospital Peshawar but there was no response from the Board of Governors, which has the ultimate authority to do so.

The government has decided to turn the newly-built Peshawar Institute of Cardiology into 200-bed facility for the people affected by coronavirus in view of the rising number of patients requiring hospitalisation.

The province has so far recorded 773 deaths

The Peshawar-based MTIs have allocated only six per cent of beds for Covid-19 patients while the remaining beds stay empty because the hospitals don’t receive general patients. Owing to surge in serious patients, the government with the assistance of National Disaster Management Authority is developing PIC to facilitate Covid-19 patients.

The Hepatitis Hospital in Peshawar is also being converted into a 50-bed temporary facility for Covid-19-hit people with the assistance of a national NGO. NDMA is also supporting health department to arrange 200 high dependency beds in Bannu, 75 in Dera Ismail Khan and 50 in Abbottabad, according acting director-general health services Dr Niaz Mohammad.

A total of 569 new persons were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, raising the total count of people infected with the ailment in the province to 13,968.

According to the health department report, of the total deaths, five occurred in Peshawar, three in Swat, two each in Malakand and Karak and one each in Swabi, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Bajaur, Haripur and Battagram. Of the total 569 new patients detected in the province, 180 belong to Peshawar, 76 to Swat, 49 to Malakand, 29 to Charsadda, 23 to Mardan, 22 to Abbottabad, 21 to Buner, 20 to each Dir Lower and Lakki Marwat, 14 each to Kohat and Karak and 14 to Dera Ismail Khan.

Peshawar and Swat continue to remain the hotbeds of the virus as both have so far recorded 380 and 75 fatalities from the virus and 6,908 and 1,947 cases respectively. Abbottabad has witnessed 36 mortalities, Mardan 41, Abbottabad 36, Malakand 30, Bajaur 23, Kohat 22, Dir Lower 20, Swabi 17, Battagram 14, Dir Upper 10, Nowshera, Mohmand, Dir Lower and Mansehra nine each while eight deaths have been recorded by Karak.

Except South and North Waziristan, Tank, Kohistan Upper and Lower, Torghar, Kolai Palas and Chitral Upper, all districts have registered deaths from the virus.

The report also showed that people continued to recover from the ailment as 304 more tested negative for the virus during the last 24 hours, making total number of the people healed so far 5,441 in the province.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2020