PESHAWAR: A senior doctor serving in Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Peshawar lost his life on Saturday after battling with coronavirus for 15 days.
According to the hospital administration, Professor Dr Javed was diagnosed with coronavirus 15 days ago and he was under treatment at the isolation ward of HMC. After staying on ventilator for several days, Professor Dr Javed died in the wee hours of Saturday. The hospital director said Dr Javed was performing duties at the ENT Department of HMC.
It is the second death of a doctor in Pakistan from novel coronavirus. Earlier, Dr Usama Riaz, a young doctor in Gilgit-Baltistan, contracted coronavirus while providing treatment to coronavirus patients without caring for his own life. Dr Usama was serving at the quarantine centre in Pari Bangla area where the pilgrims returning from Iran were kept.
The death of a senior doctor in Peshawar from coronavirus has happened at a time when doctors throughout the country, including in KP, are demanding complete lockdown in the country to avoid the spread of the virus. The doctors are of the opinion that the country’s healthcare system will collapse if the number of coronavirus patients kept on increasing. In this way, they said, the hospitals will run short of beds.
On Friday, KP Doctors Associations representatives held a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club and said the country’s population could not be saved from the virus without complete lockdown.
The doctors said Ulema should play a role in ensuring social distancing at mosques during the holy month of Ramazan and prisoners involved in minor cases must also be released. They said relaxation in the lockdown is causing massive surge in the new coronavirus cases in the country and the situation is going from bad to worse.
The doctors said hospitals are running short of protective equipment. They said the businessmen will also have to choose between the life and business.
On Thursday, almost all the bazaars and markets in KP, particularly in Peshawar, which is most affected districts, were open for those who came for shopping for Ramazan. A huge rush of people was seen everywhere and people threw the precaution into the air. Also on Friday, almost every market was full of people and the authorities also did not force anyone to observe precaution.
