PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD - At least six coronavirus patients were reported to have died when their oxygen supply ran out at a hospital in Peshawar, official said on Sunday.
The total active COVID-19 cases in the country on Sunday were recorded 53,126 as 3,308 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during the last 24 hours.
The National command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sunday confirmed that at least 58 corona patients who were under treatment in hospitals died on Saturday.
No COVID affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) while 357 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,762 allocated for COVID-19 patients.
Some 41,645 tests were conducted across the country on Saturday, including 13,684 in Sindh, 14,983 in Punjab, 4,757 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 6,852 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 413 in Balochistan, 411 in GB, and 545 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Around 355,012 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 86 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.
Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 416,499 cases were detected so far, including AJK 7,278, Balochistan 17,440, GB 4,719, ICT 32,414, KP 49,220, Punjab 122,955 and Sindh 182,473.
About 8,361 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion, including 3,011 Sindh among 20 of them died in hospital on Saturday, 3,162 in Punjab 25 of them died in hospital on Saturday, 1,404 in KP Five of them died in hospital on Saturday, 340 in ICT among six of them died in hospital on Saturday, 169 in Balochistan, 98 in GB and 177 in AJK two of them died in hospital on Saturday.
A total of 5,754,986 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 616 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 2,996 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.
On the other hand, six patients, majority of them suffering from coronavirus infection died here at Khyber Teaching Hospital on Saturday night due to lack of oxygen supply.
Confirming the incident, Provincial Minister for Health, Taimur Khan Jhagra shared on his twitter account, “there was an incident last involving a shortage of oxygen supply.”
“I have directed the Board of Governors (BoG), to conduct an immediate inquiry and take action within 48 hours or if otherwise required, government will immediately orders its own independent inquiry”, Taimor added.
Sharing details of the gory incident, Spokesman of KTH, Farhad Khan told reporters that among the deceased five were patients of COVID-19. The patients were admitted in hospital’s coronavirus ward and one of them was in the intensive care unit, Farhad added.
He said the hospital get oxygen supply from Rawalpindi which did not reach on time and caused shortage as a result of which six patients breathed their last.
Another official of KTH said there were about 120 oxygen cylinders in the back-up but a sudden shortage occurred due to spike in cases of coronavirus patients in the country.
Expressing anguish and grief over the incident, Provincial Minister for Labour and former Spokesman of KP Government, Shaukat Yousafzai said inquiry has been ordered and stern action would be taken over persons found involved in negligence.
KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan while taking notice of incident said that a probe would be completed within 48 hours. He also warned of stern action against those found responsible.
