LAHORE: Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education (SHME) Department Secretary Barrister Nabeel Ahmed Awan released the data on treatment and available facilities in the teaching hospitals of Punjab as well as provincial capital on directives from Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Friday.

Surprisingly, according to the official figures, most of the beds reserved for Covid-19 patients in the teaching hospitals and isolation wards are still unoccupied.

As per the latest data released by the SHME secretary, from the 46 teaching hospitals of Punjab, 4,884 patients have recovered and returned to their homes.

In all public teaching hospitals of Punjab, 4,168 beds are unoccupied out of 6,305 reserved for the Covid-19 patients. Similarly, in isolation wards of the teaching hospitals of Punjab, 3,329 beds are available out of 4,586 reserved for the coronavirus patients.

In Lahore’s teaching hospitals, 1,687 beds are unoccupied out of 2,333 reserved. In isolation wards of government teaching hospitals in Lahore, 1,382 beds are unoccupied out of 1,631 reserved for Covid-19 patients.

In the high dependency units (HDUs) in the entire Punjab, 628 beds are unoccupied out of 1,175 reserved for the coronavirus patients whereas in the HDUs of Lahore’s teaching hospitals, 243 beds are unoccupied out of 518.

In the entire Punjab, 211 ventilators are available out of 433 reserved whereas in Lahore, 62 ventilators are unoccupied out of 204 reserved for Covid patients.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2020