The failure of healthcare systems worldwide has given us a clear idea of where we need to invest
KARACHI: A five-digit number is displayed on my computer screen again as I scroll through my daily feeds. The news reads that almost 90,000 healthcare workers around the world have been infected by Covid-19. Some organisations say actual figures could be twice as much. Therefore, institutions have now been asked to keep an accurate record of staff members that have been infected by the virus in order to keep track of the volatile situation.
These frontline workers are the only army we have to fight the deadly virus. On the backend, it is important that we protect them by all means. Governments need to provide healthcare workers with the necessary safety equipment so that they can continue to save the lives of patients fearlessly.
Furthermore, many claim that in order to avoid a panic, governments are neither systematically collecting nor reporting information about infected healthcare workers from local hospitals and clinics. If this is so, it’s a foolish act because if we are unaware of the intensity of the spread of the virus, it will be all the more difficult for us to fight the invisible enemy. The failure of healthcare systems worldwide has given us a clear idea of where we need to invest after this pandemic is over.
Affan Yousuf
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2020.
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