PESHAWAR: Eight more people died of Covid-19 on Thursday, taking the province-wide death toll due to the virus to 435.

Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar is becoming the favourite destination of suspected coronavirus patients as it has testing facility as well as offers treatment through plasma immunisation.

The other two medical teaching institutions in Peshawar -- Lady Reading Hospital and Khyber Teaching Hospital -- don’t have testing facilities and plasma immunisation for positive coronavirus patients.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 435 deaths from the pandemic and more than 300 of these have occurred in Peshawar-based hospitals, mostly in LRH where 185 have succumbed to the infectious illness.

LRH has been in the limelight owing to more fatalities due to the virus and subsequent resignations by senior faculty members and closure of wards due to infections to staff. Now patients have started visiting HMC to seek treatment.

Peshawar hospitals reeling under load of patients

The doctors say that situation in HMC is likely to turn the LRH’s way owing to shortage of beds.

A Covid-19 situation report by health department said that three persons died in Peshawar and one each in Mardan, Swat, Malakand, Abbottabad and Kohat.

Dr Khanzada Shinwari of Shifa Medical Center Hangu district, died of Covid-19 at the Khyber Teaching Hospital on Thursday.

The province reported 359 new cases, the highest number of patients in a single day since the onset of the pandemic, with 114 from Peshawar, 76 from Swat, 23 from Khyber, 20 from Malakand and 12 each from Abbottabad and Dir Lower.

Peshawar, which has recorded 246 deaths and 3,263 Covid-19 cases so far, has been responsible for the main load of the pandemic. As a result, the Peshawar-based hospitals are struggling to cope with patients’ load.

LRH, which earned worldwide fame due to management of injured people from bomb and terrorist attacks a couple of years ago, has lately been in the spotlight, for alleged mismanagement of Covid-19 patients.

The hospital has so far admitted more than 600 patients and majority of them have recovered but the mortality rate in LRH is very high compared to KTH and HMC that account for 50 deaths apiece.

The doctors say that government has dedicated 900 beds throughout the province for Covid-19 patients but people continue to visit Peshawar. They say that currently the mainstay of patients is three public sector hospitals in Peshawar that have allocated 395 beds for Covid-19 patients including 240 in LRH, 90 in HMC and 55 in KTH, where 170 people are currently admitted.

On Thursday, there were 91 patients in HMC, 41 in LRH and 38 in KTH. The reasons for rush of patients in HMC is that it is the only of the three hospitals where Covid-19 tests are conducted while the other two hospitals send the sample for diagnosis to Public Health Reference Laboratory and take comparative longer period to get results.

HMC has conducted about 3,000 tests free of cost. It provides results to the patients on the same day. It has diagnosed 900 positive and 450 have been admitted and treated. HMC has recorded 80 deaths so far.

The other cause of patients’ load is plasma immunisation as HMC is the only recognised institution for immunisation of plasma to Covid-19 patients in the province.

The hospital has virtually run out of high dependency and intensive care unit beds and the administration is double minded whether to admit patients on general beds because in doing so spread of virus is feared. Therefore, doctors engaged in the treatment of covid-19 patients want the government to ask district and city-based hospitals to utilise their full resources for patients to ensure safety of HMC staff and better services to the infected people.

On Thursday, case fatality rate (CFR) in the country was 2.05 per cent compared to Wednesday’s 2.07 per cent while in KP it stood at 4.88 per cent down from 5.01 per cent recorded a day before. However, it was the highest CFR recorded by any province in the country.

CFR in Peshawar was 7.53 compared to Wednesday’s 7.74 per cent, the most in any city of the country.

During the last 24 hours, 35 new deaths were reported in the country. Seven of them are from KP. It means the province has contributed 20 per cent to the total new deaths occurred in the country. Peshawar has recorded two new deaths among the overall new fatalities, showing that the provincial capital has contributed 6 per cent to the total new deaths.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2020