RAWALPINDI: The local administration has decided to turn Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) as focal hospital for coronavirus and asked its administration to make all the arrangements within 48 hours.

Earlier, the high dependency unit (HDU) was established in Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and quarantine was established in RIU but due to presence of a large number of patients and attendants in BBH, it was decided to allocate a separate facility in the town.

Now, the filter clinic, isolation ward and HDU will be established in RIU and all the suspected patients would be transferred to the hospital. At present, three floors of the hospital are complete while two floors would be completed by end of this fiscal year.

This was announced at a meeting held in Commissioner Office with Rawalpindi commissioner in the chair.

Among others, Director Development Nazia Sudhan, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Shoaib Ali and Assistant commissioner (Saddar) Zahid Khan were also present in the meeting.

The commissioner said Rawalpindi Institute of Urology has been dedicated to treat coronavirus patients and hopefully it would be functional by mid-March.

He said prevention is better than cure and in this regard, there was a need to create awareness about the virus. He said the health department had made arrangements to keep the people informed about the virus so that they did not panic.

He directed strict action against hoarders and those who were selling masks at high rate.

“Availability of masks at normal rates is also being ensured and we have confiscated 20,000 masks being hoarded by a factory which are being made available to pubic now,” he said.

He said the blood samples of a suspected coronavirus patient in BBH, sent to National Institute of Health (NIH), tested negative for the virus. He said the training of doctors had been completed as per the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.

He further added that although two patients of this virus had been confirmed in Pakistan, even than there was no need to panic.

Everyone needs to adopt simple safety measures in order to remain safe. “Death rate of this virus is only 2pc so there is no need to panic,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) arranged the awareness workshop for its employees. The session was led by District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Khalid Janjua.

RDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza, RDA Director Administration and Finance Khalid Javed Goraya and employees participated in the workshop.

RDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza asked RDA and Wasa employees to take precautions including personal hygiene, washing their hands before and after eating and sneezing to avoid the coronavirus.

Published in Dawn, February 29th, 2020