Remember doctors on Eid: Zardari

PPP co-chairman urges people to offer prayers at home

KARACHI: PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday urged people to remember doctors and paramedics on the frontline in the coronavirus pandemic fight in their Eid prayers.

In his Eid message to the nation, the former president said: “The whole country is your own and celebrate this Eid wherever you want but offer Eid prayers at your home.”

Zardari stressed the need for following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and maintaining social distancing to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

He noted that doctors and paramedics had rendered great sacrifices in the war against coronavirus and some had lost their lives. We must remember doctors and paramedics in our prayers,” he added.

Last month, Dr Abdul Qadir Soomro, 64, passed away at the Indus Hospital in Karachi after contracting coronavirus.

In the same month, Dr Mohammad Javed, a senior doctor at Peshawar's Hayatabad Medical Complex also passed away because of Covid-19.

Dr Rabia Tayyab, 26, passed away because of coronavirus at Rawalpindi's Holy Family Hospital. This month, Noman Ahmed, 32, an attendant at the OPD of a charity-run hospital in Orangi Town, Karachi, died of Covid-19.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said at a news conference a few days ago that seven doctors in the province had succumbed to the novel coronavirus.

According to reports, hundreds of doctors and paramedics have contracted the disease across the country.

According to the International Council of Nurses, at least 90,000 health-care workers worldwide are believed to have been infected with Covid-19, and possibly twice that, amid reports of continuing shortages of protective equipment.

The World Health Organisation says that its 194 member states were not providing comprehensive figures on health worker infections as they grapple with the unprecedented crisis.