1,098 patients treated at Expo Centre facility to date

1,200-bed field isolation centre was set up in April to reduce burden on health system

As the pandemic struck Pakistan, experts feared the country's healthcare system would buckle under the strain. To support the health infrastructure, therefore, several temporary hospitals were established across the country.

Set up jointly by the provincial government and the army, the field isolation centre at Karachi's Expo Centre is one of these, and has treated as many as 1,098 patients to date.

The makeshift isolation centre initially had a capacity of 1,200 Covid-19 patients, later reduced to 900 after the establishment of a 140-bed high dependency unit (HDU).

According to the centre's administrator, Brig Muhammad Shehzad, no deaths have been reported in the isolation ward to date, while 10 patients in critical condition succumbed to the virus in the intensive care unit. Currently, 10 people are still under treatment at the facility, he added.

He stated that patients were provided with the best possible medical care at the centre, including a healthy diet as well as access to physiotherapists and psychiatrists. "The patients can also meet their family members through a glass wall and talk to them over the phone," he added.

He further claimed that several patients who had regained health at the facility later donated plasma to help others fight the disease and the government had provided all the necessary assistance in this regard, he added.

Chest specialist Dr Waris, serving voluntarily at the centre, explained that it was initially established just to quarantine people with few symptoms, but the standard of care improved as many of those admitted there needed oxygen as well as ventilators to survive. He further claimed that none of the healthcare workers there had contracted the virus from the patients.

Dr Syed Farjad, another doctor there, explained that three categories of patients had been admitted. "First were those shifted from home because of their symptoms, second were those who needed to be isolated, while the third were those who needed HDUs due to complications."

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2020.