PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department is likely to dedicate one of the city’s medical teaching institutions in case of confirmation of novel corona disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the province.

The suggestion was made to Health Secretary Mohammad Yahya Akhunzada by representatives of the medical teaching institutions in a meeting here on Thursday. They said that confirmed patients required intensive services along ventilation that were available at MTIs.

“There is no threat. We have tested 17 suspected patients so far. All are negative. Already 24-bed isolation ward has been reserved for coronavirus at Lady Reading Hospital,” Dr Shaheen Afridi, director public health at the directorate general health services, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawn.

She said that the department identified 25 persons, who visited Iran, and search for others was in progress to know about their health status. She added that six high-risk districts of the province were being screened for pilgrims to Iran where the virus was in circulation.

Dr Shaheen said that health secretary formed a committee of Khyber Teaching Hospital, LRH and Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar on Thursday to escalate preparations for COVID-19. She said that MTI couldn’t be closed but the department had a strategy to ensure proper isolation and treatment of suspected patients.

“We have already dedicated 800 beds for the suspected patients in public and private hospitals in every district,” she said.

The health secretary asked the participants of the meeting to scale up isolation and treatment programme for patients and screening at borders and airports, said Dr Shaheen. “The coordinated approach for present level of our ability and future plan to upgrade equipment and services when outbreak occurs were also discussed,” she added.

The government has declared Services Hospital focal point for suspected COVID-19 patients but the ones requiring hospitalisation are sent to MTIs where they get oxygen, intensive care and ventilation.

Prof Irshad Ahmed, the medical director of KTH, told Dawn that they wanted to dedicate one MTI as the disease had less mortality rate but very high transmission rate. In case of outbreak, 270 in every 1,000 patients needed admission and 40 per cent intensive care services with central oxygen and dedicated staff.

“The province will need a dedicated hospital in case of first case, therefore, we suggested to health department to provide intensive care services to the patients,” he said.

Prof Irshad said that at the moment there was no emergency but they needed full emergency services that were available in MTIs.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2020