FAISALABAD: The death of a known doctor and a nurse who had been suffering from coronavirus on Wednesday further created panic in the district.

Dr Javeed Iqbal and Perveen, a nurse, died of Covid-19. The number of health professionals falling a victim to the disease has crossed 200.

The panic-stricken people prefer to stay home in case of any symptoms of the disease rather than reporting to the health facilities. Ahmed and four members of his family had been suffering from fever and other symptoms of Covid-19 but they did not report to any hospital and got treatment at home. Others too are consulting doctors over phone as the deaths of health professionals is instilling fear in them.

Doctors say there are countless people in the district having symptoms of the disease and they seek advice over phone.

Two more health professionals die in Faisalabad

Pakistan Medical Association Faisalabad chapter secretary Dr Muhammad Irfan said the screening of people at massive level in Faisalabad would prove that the district had countless patients of Covid-19. He said people were much frightened as the doctors were falling prey to the virus. He said people were of the view that hospitals’ staff including doctors, nurses and paramedics were infected with the virus and they could hardly help people in improvement of their health. He said more than 200 doctors of government hospitals were suffering from the disease and a majority of them contracted virus while treating the patients. The number of infected doctors could increase in the days to come as the administration was not taking their issues seriously, he said.

He said the availability of ventilators was crucial for the serious patients. He said Dr Javeed died at the Allied Hospital and Parveen died at the DHQ hospital. He said the Allied Hospital had five ventilators and all were under use.

Besides, Dr Irfan said, people also feared that the administration would not give them body of the patient in case he or she would expire at the hospital.

Ahmed said they had contacted their family physician who prescribed the required medicines and asked them to avoid visiting any government hospital. He said we were already terrified with the news that doctors were prone to the virus. He said when doctors were not safe at the government hospitals, how they could ensure that patients would go home without contracting virus from the infirmaries. He said all of them had recovered from the disease and completed 14 days in isolation.

Young Doctors Association Faisalabad chapter secretary Dr Adnan Shakir said the actual number of patients could be ascertained after conducting more tests of the general public. However, he said, the government lacked resources to do so and people also had no trust in the administration due to the poor arrangements made for the treatment of the Covid-19 patients.

He said doctors were rendering services despite a lack of protective measures. Easing the lockdown during Ramazan was a blunder which resulted in spread of the virus, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2020