HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to secretary of health, director general of health Sindh, district health officer, medical superintendent of Kohsar Hospital and deputy commissioner on a petition challenging establishment of a quarantine facility for Covid-19 patients at the Kohsar Hospital.

The division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Khadim Hussain Tunio issued the notices directing the respondents to appear in court on May 12 subject to maintainability of the petition filed by a social worker, Mukhtiar Ahmed.

The petitioner, a resident of Daman-i-Kohsar Society, Latifabad, challenged the establishment of the facility in a thickly populated area and said the hospital lacked necessary facilities, it had only 40 to 50 beds, no oxygen plants, ventilators and intensive care units for Covid-19 patients.

He said the hospital had been made the quarantine facility by the respondent health officials and around 150 patients had been kept there. Even the medical superintendent of the hospital contracted the virus because of lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), he said.

He said that when he and other residents raised voice against shifting of Covid-19 patients from other hospitals to Kohsar the respondents assured them that they would not shift the patients to the facility.

He said that considering that Covid-19 was a highly contagious disease, the population living around the facility was at high risk and their lives were in danger. According to health protocols, such patients needed to be kept in isolation centres away from populated areas.

He accused Hyderabad deputy commissioner of acting unilaterally against experts’ opinions while shifting patients to Kohsar Hospital. He said that despite having Labour Colony flats and building of a new medical college at the disposal of the administration the DC set up the quarantine centre in the thickly-populated area and exposed entire population to risk.

He requested the court to direct the respondents to shift the facility away from population and conduct chlorine spray in Kohsar housing society.

Four more test positive for virus in Latifabad

Four women of a family, among the seven whose samples were collected by health officials in Latifabad a day before, tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.

Official sources said that a total of 24 tests were carried out at Diagnostic and Research Laboratory of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) in Jamshoro and of them four were found positive.

The infected women had been quarantined at their house in Pathan Goth off Autobahn Road while their three children, who tested negative, had been shifted to their relatives’ home, said the sources.

With the four positive tests, Hyderabad’s total of confirmed cases analysed here for one or the other reason stood at 169. Another 47 tests were done on April 6 and all of them were found to be negative.

Nurses allowed to leave without Covid-19 test

SUKKUR: Nurses performing duties at the quarantine centre in Labour Colony were allowed to leave for home without undergoing mandatory test for coronavirus, said sources.

In a video message, a group of nurses made the disclosure and complained that they had been looking after the patients for past 25 days but they had not been given any extra allowance.

They feared that since they had not been screened before leaving the centre, they were at great risk. If one of them had contracted the virus she could pass on the virus to her family members and others who came into contact with them, they said.

They appealed to the health authorities to test them for the virus and grant them special allowance for working overtime at the centre.

Rangers’ personnel deployed at graveyards

MIRPURKHAS: Rangers’ personnel were deployed at graveyards to prevent people from gathering during lockdown for Shab-i-Barat here on Wednesday.

Police took action against violation of Section 144 and detained a number of people who had gathered on roads and roundabouts in the city.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2020

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