TANDO MOHAMMAD KHAN - Special Assistant to Sindh CM on Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Focal Person for TM Khan on Coronavirus Syed Qasim Naveed Qamar visited the District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital here on Thursday where six ventilators have been installed in order to deal with any emergency.
Expressing his satisfaction over the arrangements made by management of the DHQ Hospital, Qamar said that despite limited resources, the Sindh government was taking measures to protect people of the province from the virus.
“The government has also distributed pamphlets among people, outlining the precautionary measures in view of the Covid-19,” he said, and added, “The Sindh government has been on the frontline in war against the pandemic ever since it raised its head.” He claimed that these initiatives and measures taken by the provincial government were a benchmark for the federal as well as other provincial governments to follow.
The focal person on coronavirus requested the philanthropists to help the needy people in this time of national crisis. “We could only steer the nation out of such a situation, if we stand like one nation,” he emphasised.
He also requested the people to remain at their homes and keep themselves and their loved ones safe from coronavirus as prevention was the only cure of the virus.
Healthcare professionals need protective equipment
Meanwhile, the healthcare professionals in interior Sindh face acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, medical masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, and aprons, due to the rising demand for these instruments amid panic created by the spread of coronavirus.
Healthcare workers rely on these equipments to protect themselves and their patients from getting infected.
But the shortage of these items in markets has left doctors, nurses and other frontline workers exposed to the deadly disease.
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Sindh, prices of these equipments have surged.
Supplies can take months to deliver and market manipulation is widespread, with stocks frequently sold to the highest bidder.
“We’re on a very low scale, in terms of surgical-relevant stuff and infrastructure,” says Dr Shahzad Baloch. “Healthcare is much disintegrated and not of a very high quality when it comes to dealing with critically ill patients, which is unfortunately an outcome of COVID-19,” he added.
While there are a limited number of ventilators available in lower Sindh, Shahzad says a bigger problem could be a dearth of enough doctors to operate them in the event of a surge in cases.
