PESHAWAR: The provincial government has ordered the medical teaching institutions to enhance the number of Covid-19 beds on emergency basis as hospitalisation due to coronavirus increased by 100 per cent during the past one week.

Health officials said that the number of patients on ventilators had risen by 200 per cent over the last fortnight. “Health minister has instructed the administration of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital to enhance the number of beds for Covid-19 patients by 50 per cent immediately after continuous spike in number of serious patients,” they added.

They said that situation in other districts with regard to availability of Covid-19 beds was satisfactory but bed occupancy by coronavirus patients in Peshawar-based hospitals was increasing and if the situation remained the same, there would be shortage of beds.

A report of World Health Organisation on Sunday said that Covid-19 positivity rose to 17.9 per cent, an alarming level which prompted the government to issue an alert to the districts of Swat, Abbottabad and Mansehra to be prepared to cope with the patients’ load.

Hospitalisation due to virus registers 100pc spike

Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar told Dawn that they had imposed smart lockdown in 21 areas on recommendation of health department and would continue the strategy to prevent virus transmission.

“District administration is checking markets, hotels, wedding halls and other public places to ensure adherence to SOPs and contain the infection in the second weave,” he said.

The official said that there would be more lockdowns as it was the only way to safeguard the people against the virus. “We are in close contact with health department regarding Covid-19 cases. The hotspot areas will face lockdown as a strategy of the government,” he added.

HMC has 30 patients a week ago and has 97 on Sunday. Officials said that they increased beds as well as human resources in view of spike in number of serious people.

KTH, which has 25 patients a week ago, now houses 90 patients. The hospital is also scaling up its admission capacity in view of the number of patients.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated 5,440 beds for Covid-19 patients in the public sector hospitals of the province but the patients continue to visit Peshawar-based hospitals. It is likely to cause shortage of space.

Officials said that at present 29 patients were on ventilators as compared to only 11 a week ago and the situation was becoming worse because there was lack of adherence to precautionary measures that might further increase number of seriously-ill people.

The province has total of 340 admitted patients in different districts. Most of the district hospitals have ventilators and state-of-the-art intensive care units but still the health department is asking the district health administrations to further enhance their capacity as well as level of services so that the patients avoid visiting to Peshawar.

The province recorded 502 cases on Saturday, the highest number of cases in a single day since June, with two deaths. So far, 1,327 people have passed away due to the pandemic since its onset while the number of infected people has reached 44,599, according to a report of health department. The number of active cases has risen to 3, 037 in the province.

The province has 3.02 per cent case fatality rate (CFR) against the nationwide 2.05 per cent. CFR in Peshawar is 3.8 per cent. According to officials the second wave of the pandemic can prove more lethal as people have got relaxed because the first wave hasn’t caused more deaths and cases.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2020