100,000 recoveries

In an encouraging sign in the fight against Covid-19 in Pakistan, the number of patients having recovered from the deadly disease has crossed the hundred thousand mark. As of mid-day on Wednesday, as many as 100,802 Covid-19 patients stood recovered from among a total of 213,470 patients across the country. The number of recoveries, thus, comes to something around 47% of the total cases of the lethal infection. In a breakup, Sindh takes the lead in the number of recoveries. At 46,824, the number of patients having defeated the virus in Sindh is 46,824 — a figure which makes up 46% of the total recoveries across the country. In a distant second, 27,488 Covid-19 patients are fortunate enough to have come out of the illness in Punjab, in what accounts for 27% of the recoveries countrywide.

So, as we speak about the recovery of nearly half of the virus-infected patients, it is time to acknowledge the invaluable services of our frontline fighters, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, who continue to risk their lives for the sake of saving the lives of others. According to figures compiled by the medical fraternity, at least 63 healthcare practitioners — including 52 doctors, six nurses and several technicians — have laid down their lives fighting the virus while hundreds of others have fallen sick. Not to be forgotten are the staff of welfare organisations like Edhi, Chhipa and others who brave the dangerous microbe as they attend to the Covid-19 patients during their shifting to hospitals.

And while much has already been written on the unfavourable working conditions — dangerous in some instances — that our medical fraternity has had to bear with, it’s indeed time to remind the authorities of the lack of staff, shortage of PPEs, unavailability of equipment like oxygen cylinders and ventilators, disappearance of drugs from the markets, and absence of any monetary motivations for healthcare workers. These are the controllable factors that are otherwise adding to the risks associated with Covid-19. But despite all odds, our selfless frontline fighters have been fighting on and on since February 26 when the coronavirus crossed into our borders.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2020.

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