LAHORE: The Punjab government’s response to the second wave of the coronavirus causing a spike in positive cases and deaths seems inadequate as so far only two government health facilities in Lahore have started admitting critical Covid-19 patients.

Despite the provincial capital reporting over 250 new virus positive patients and a visible increase in the number of related deaths, other public sector teaching hospitals have yet to make their Covid-19 wards/beds fully functional. These designated wards were closed down after the infection cases had started decreasing during the first wave of the pandemic.

So far, only the Mayo Hospital and the Expo Centre facility in Lahore are admitting critical Covid patients, while the Corona wards in other healthcare facilities are not fully functioning despite having a capacity to handle a good number of such cases.

According to the official figures, the Mayo Hospital has allocated 451 and Expo Centre facility 1,050 beds for Covid-19 patients, keeping in view the rising number of positive cases.

Experts warn of ‘stronger’ second wave taking higher toll

During the first wave of the pandemic, all kinds of other health services were suspended by many other state-run facilities, including Services Hospital, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI), Children’s Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology Lahore, where managements were strictly directed to deal with coronavirus cases only. These facilities were equipped with ventilators, oxygen supply systems and specialised teams of medics.

The medical experts are of the view that the virus’ second wave appears to be much dangerous given the visible increase in related deaths of younger patients.

They lamented that the government sector hospitals seemed insufficiently prepared to take any unusual number of such patients given the capacity at their respective Corona wards.

The experts say that during the second spike of the infection, an alarming surge has been witnessed in the patients visiting hospitals complaining of short breath, which they term a worrying sign.

The official statistics showing a sharp increase in the Covid death rate supports the experts’ assertion.

According to the figures, during the month of October, total 134 deaths were reported in Punjab, while just in the first half of November, the virus claimed the lives of 110 patients.

On Tuesday, the Punjab province reported a total 17 deaths of Covid patients, showing a persistent surge in the death ratio.

“We are receiving around 20 Covid patients daily who are in dire need of oxygen at the Mayo Hospital Lahore”, a senior physician told Dawn while comparing it with the figures in September when the number had dropped to just 2-3 such patients.

Co-chairman of the Corona Experts Adviser Group (CEAG) Prof Dr Asad Aslam confirmed that only two state-run health facilities were providing services to the Covid-19 patients so far during the second wave.

However, he said, the Punjab government has alerted other public sector hospitals as well, asking them to make preparations for making their respective intensive care units (ICUs)/high dependency units (HDUs) functional again for Covid patients in the coming days.

“In the Mayo Hospital, the number of admitted patients has reached to 84 against the capacity of 451 beds designated for the coronavirus patients,” Prof Aslam said.

He said most of the patients were visiting the hospital in serious condition, adding that out of the total 84 patients, 11 were critical while the others were put on oxygen due to shortness of breath.

“We have a total 90 fully functional ventilators for Covid-19 patients at the Mayo Hospital Lahore,” Dr Asad, who is also chief executive of the hospital, told this reporter.

He said the number of serious patients visiting hospitals was higher this time as compared to that of the first wave of the virus.

He said the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has provided sufficient number of new ventilators to the Punjab government recently to meet any future requirement of the state-run hospitals of the province.

Every teaching hospital of the province was provided 20-25 new ventilators, he said, adding that the Mayo Hospital also received its quota.

He said some leading private hospitals of the city including Doctors Hospital, National Hospital Defence, Hameed Latif Hospital and Farooq Hospital had also started admission of Covid-19 patients.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2020