PESHAWAR: Senior physicians involved in the management of Covid-19 patients at the hospitals are concerned about non-compliance with standard operating procedure as 21 more people including two doctors died due to the pandemic in the province on Monday.

Provincial Doctors Association said that Dr Abdul Kabir, pioneer of general surgery in Swat, died in Islamabad while Dr Mohammad Kamil, a native of Dir, breathed his last at Hayatabad Medical Complex due to Covid-19. The virus has so far killed a total of 94 healthcare providers.

“PDA strongly requests for compensation package approved in April last year to the heirs of all health workers, who laid their lives while saving others in hospitals during coronavirus pandemic. We are effectively involved in management of patients during the third wave of the pandemic, which has proven more virulent than the first two,” a statement by association said.

Positivity level of the pandemic in Mardan rose to 36.6 per cent, the highest in the country.

21 more including two doctors die in province

A health department report said that with new mortalities, the provincial death toll reached 2,920 since the advent of the pandemic in February last year while the tally of incidence swelled to 107,309 with detection of 809 fresh patients during the last 24 hours.

It said that 84 per cent of the infected people recovered from the infectious ailment so far as 811 more were declared negative for the infection. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 13,591 active cases now.

Among the fresh fatalities, 13 died in Peshawar, three each in Swat and Mardan and two in Bannu, according to the report. The provincial capital reported 195 new cases, Haripur 102, Kohat 58, Dir Lower 54, Malakand 51, Nowshera and Mansehra 40 each, Abbottabad 32, Dera Ismail Khan 28, Swat 25 and Khyber 22.

Doctors at the hospitals are extremely concerned about the growing number of infections and say that lack of adherence to SOPs is causing rise in the number of infected people.

“The government has increased beds in high dependency units from 700 to 1,400 in view of surge in the number of coronavirus patients but given the speed with which cases are rising, it is feared that the availability of space will become scarce. We need to prevail upon the people to follow the precautionary measures,” a physician at one of the medical teaching intuitions in Peshawar told Dawn.

A report prepared by World Health Organisation said that after Mardan, Peshawar stayed second on the Covid-19 positivity list with 25.6 per cent while Swat and Nowshera ranked fourth and fifth with positivity rates of 17 per cent and 15.8 per cent respectively. Abbottabad has 9.7 per cent positivity rate in the nationwide list showing 17 high-burdened most infected districts.

It said that the overall positivity in the province was 7.1 per cent. The health department report said that 1,671 patients were being managed at different hospitals of the province and 83 of them were in critical condition and on ventilator.

Scores of Covid-19 patients have been admitted in Peshawar. There are 103 patients in Khyber Teaching Hospital, 142 in Hayatabad Medical Complex, 391 in Lady Reading Hospital and 59 in Covid-19 Hospital Nishartabad.

Health officials said that main cause of the rising number of coronavirus patients was lack of adherence to SOPs as people did not realise that they could stay safe only though wearing mask, avoidance of going to crowded places and hand sanitizing.

They said that the district administrations that were responsible to ensure compliance with precautionary measures were not using strict measures to give a strong message to the people that anyone violating the SOPs would face heavy penalty as well as imprisonment.

Officials said that administration was still doing a commendable job but they needed more strictness as far as enforcement of SOPs was concerned. They said that the main trouble spots were Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat, Swabi, Kohat and Abbottabad and complete lockdown was needed because the infection was unlikely to recede until the people were forced to stay home.

“Every day, health minister is holding meetings with heads of hospitals, district health officers and medical superintendents where availability of beds and personal protective equipment is discussed. In high-risk districts, we are in the process of scaling up facilities for coronavirus patients but the basic need is to enforce SOPs,” said officials.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021