June 21st, 2020
By Muhammad Hammad
HYDERABAD
Hospitals in Hyderabad, Sindh, allocated especially for COVID-19 patients have almost reached their full capacity, aside from only two unoccupied ventilators.
According to health department officials, so far a total of 11,833 tests have been conducted out of which 1,800 were tested positive while 10,033 tested negative for the virus in the whole district.
Out of 1,800 patients, 154 were members of the tableeghi jamaat, 119 were students, 196 government officials including 15 police officers and three employees of the PM’s Ehsaas program, 156 healthcare workers including 92 doctors and 16 under trial prisoners.
A total of 908 patients have already recovered from the disease.
At least 46 people succumbed to the virus making the situation alarming for doctors on duty as 18 out of 20 ventilators are still under the use of critical COVID-19 patients.
Director of the ICU at Liaquat Nursery hospital of Hyderabad, Dr Kashif Ali Memon told Voicepk.net that most of the cases they have received after Eid have been very critical.
“COVID-19 patients above the age of 50 years old with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes and blood pressure comprise the majority of the critical patients while I am in touch with younger patients with mild symptoms who have self-isolated at home,” added Dr Memon.
According to the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), doctors in the Civil Hospital are doing everything in their capacity despite limited resources. However, with the presence of two administrative bodies, many issues get complicated or worse.
Like many healthcare providers across Pakistan, experts in Hyderabad have also been trying to treat the patients of COVID-19 with plasma therapy.
Speaking to Voicepk.net the focal person of Civil Hospital Hyderabad, Dr Aftab Hussain said that the situation only started to get worse when the government decided to ease the lockdown which was in place and social distancing was better than it was now.
“Now every patient we receive is critical,” he said. “Around 21 of them were given plasma therapy and 10 of them are currently healthy. Eight of them fully recovered unfortunately three of them expired.”
As per the patterns he has observed, plasma therapy does help the patient into testing negative eventually because two of the three expired patients had recovered from COVID-19 after the therapy but could not survive because the virus had already damaged their lungs beyond repair.
Citizens from Hyderabad who spoke to Voicepk.net complained about the on going strikes by the health workers due to unavailability of PPEs, resulting in the closure of OPDs.
Although more than 150 health workers in Hyderabad had tested positive, the area only has capacity of 20 ICUs and 20 HDUs out of which hardly two are left free according to the influx of the new patients.
The tertiary care hospital (THQ) in Hyderabad also has to take in patients from more than 12 districts including Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Mirpurkhas, Mithi, Nangarparkar, Tharparkar, Tando Allah Yar, Jamshoro, Sehwan, Hala, Matyari, Thatta and Sujawal.
The Sindh government announced plans to add 64 beds in the High Dependency Unit at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro in the first week of June but on Wednesday, doctors in charge informed that the new facilities will still take a few days to be operational.
Another 50 beds for the isolation are also expected to be added at the said healthcare facility of Jamshoro due to the critical situation in the existing facilities currently provided to the citizens.
Sindh government has announced a strict lockdown in the COVID-19 hotspots as per decision of NCOC which includes areas of Hyderabad.
