Karachi, June 12, 2020: Ahmed Chinoy Chairman of Pakistan Cloth Merchants Association has said more than 15 million people are living in Karachi and only 15 Government, private and charitable hospitals are dealing with Coronavirus patients.
He has requested the Government to increase the number of beds at HIGH DEPENDENCY UNITS (HDUs) & INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (ICU) in the hospitaks to deal with increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients . Currently, most of isolation centres and hospital are running short of beds as the available number of HDU & ICU beds are around 500 and the number of patients are 5000 due to growing number of Coronavirus patients, The current situation is creating panic and fear,he added.
The numbers of patient are growing way higher than the number of beds. Due to which hospital doesn’t have space to keep the patients in the emergency, he said.
At this stage, he has urged the people to follow the safety guidelines because if the numbers continue to grow and government will be unable to handle them. Worst is yet to come the country’s Covid-19 tally has reached 125,933 cases, recovered 40,247 cases and 2,463 deaths cases.
June and July are very crucial as we expect a sharp rise in already fast-increasing coronavirus cases in the country. The country’s already fragile health system might collapse following the expected rise in Covid-19 cases.
The health facilities, the shortage of trained medical staff is adding to the worsening situation. Various doctors, nurses, and technicians have already gone into self-isolation after getting infected by the virus across the country. Young doctors with no required experience are being pitched to handle ICUs, and ventilators in several hospitals to bridge this gap.
Ahmed Chinoy requested all the Government, Private Hospital & Private Laboratory to come forward and play their role and provide testing facilities free of cost or take minimum charge for testing covid-19 patients. Further requested the Government to take iron step for those who are charging very high fee for testing Covid-19 patient the Government issue Covid-19 testing fee slab same for all the private hospital.
To avoid fear and panic situation Ahmed Chinoy requested the Government to increase the capacity of HDU & ICU beds and also appealed the people to follow social distancing and precautionary measures to keep things under control to meet the challenge.
