KARACHI: Senior doctors, health experts and medical scientists on Monday questioned the attitude of the government and people from all walks of life during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic as regulatory bodies’ failure to implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) and irresponsible actions of major political parties was pushing the country towards one of its worst health crises.

They warned that if the people, political parties and traders failed to follow SOPs and continue ignoring their warnings, there would be no other option but to impose a complete lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus and save the health system from total collapse.

The warning was given by the health experts associated with the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), who claimed that “hundreds” of doctors and paramedics had lost their lives due to Covid-19 in the country and it would be almost impossible to convince those still serving to continue their job amid serious violations of SOPs by the people.

“It’s now established that we are facing the second wave of Covid-19, which is proving to be highly lethal,” Prof Sohail Akhtar, a prominent pulmonologist associated with the Indus Health Network (IHN) and former PIMA president, told a news conference at the Karachi Press Club.

The association calls for a stricter lockdown if people, political parties continue to ignore safety measures

“We are running out of space and beds at our leading health facilities in Karachi. A list compiled by us indicates that there were no beds available at the ICUs and HDUs of nine leading hospitals in Karachi three days back. The [Covid-19] positivity has reached up to 10 per cent. Thousands of people are being tested positive and hundreds of them are requiring hospitalisation,” he said.

Call to reduce business hours further

Another former PIMA president, Prof Misbah ul Aziz, said hardly 20pc people were wearing masks while moving outside homes, which was extremely “shameful and unfortunate”.

He demanded that the government use whatever measures possible including imposition of heavy fines, legislation or penalties to make wearing of masks mandatory outside homes.

“If people are not following the SOPs, kindly implement a strict lockdown as not only common people but a large number of doctors are getting killed while treating patients at hospitals and their clinics,” Prof Aziz said and added that business timings should be further reduced in the country.

Dr Faiyaz Alam strongly criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan for ignoring Karachiites in his health insurance scheme, saying it was a serious discrimination with the residents of the country’s commercial capital, who contributed to the national exchequer more than any other city.

“Why are you [PM] not issuing Sehat Insaf Cards to the people of Karachi? Don’t we have poor people in this city? Why people of KP and other parts of the country are dearer to you as compared to those living in Karachi,” he questioned.

He also demanded that the government immediately launch a short-term insurance scheme for doctors and paramedics, saying the family of every doctor and healthcare provider dying from Covid-19 should be paid at least Rs10 million.

Dr Zeeshan Ansari spoke about re-infections among Covid-19 positive people and said all those who had contracted the disease previously, should also be very careful as they could be infected again.

He asked the government to start using the coronavirus antigen screening, which was very accurate and cost-effective as compared to PCR tests.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2020