Covid-19 ward set up at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital

Coronavirus testing lab will also be established at the hospital

KARACHI: Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar announced on Tuesday that a Covid-19 ward had been established at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and a laboratory for coronavirus testing was be made functional at the healthcare facility in the near future.

"Tests at the laboratory will be carried out for free," the mayor said, while meeting Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) medical and health services senior director Dr Birbal Genani.

According to Akhtar, the newly-established wards can accommodate up to 48 adults and 26 children and the National Disaster and Management Authority will pay for all its expenses.

Besides, he said, intensive care and high dependency units were also being set up at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Akhtar pointed out that Karachiites had been facing problems as a result of the city's hospitals running out of space, owing to the huge influx of Covid-19 patients, adding that hospitals run by the KMC could be utilised to decrease the patient load.

"There is space at KMC hospitals and coronavirus wards can be established there," he said.

Briefing the mayor, Dr Genani said that a team of Provincial Disaster Management Authority had visited the hospital and reviewed arrangements for the Covid-19 ward, following which they had decided to make it functional by next.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2020.