Health emergency declared in Punjab

As catastrophic floods continue to engulf Punjab, the provincial government has declared a health emergency across the province.

In view of the risks of diseases and displacement faced by millions of people, the health department, in coordination with the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC), directed private hospitals to step in with free treatment and expanded facilities for flood-hit patients.

This year's monsoon season has turned into one of the deadliest in recent memory. Relentless downpours, combined with the release of excess water from Indian dams, have inundated over 1,400 villages along the Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab rivers. Nearly 150,000 people have been forced from their homes, many now crammed into relief camps or stranded in partially submerged settlements.

The scale of destruction has strained already fragile public infrastructure, and with stagnant waters heightening the threat of cholera, malaria, dengue, diarrhoea and skin infections, the government has moved to pre-empt a major health crisis.

The Punjab Health and Population Welfare Department has directed all district health authorities to immediately activate emergency control rooms and deploy medical teams to flood-affected areas. Mobile and 'clinic-on-wheels' units are being dispatched to remote villages where road access is blocked, while emergency health camps have been set up in school buildings and relief shelters to provide vaccination, first aid, maternal care, and treatment for waterborne diseases.

Surveillance cells are monitoring the spread of infectious diseases, with orders for real-time reporting to provincial headquarters. Medical supply chains are being reinforced, with warehouses stocking intravenous (IV) fluids, antibiotics, vaccines, surgical disposables, and emergency consumables.

A senior health department official told reporters that the floods have pushed the province into a crisis situation, adding that the priority is to prevent secondary disasters such as epidemics.

The official said every hospital, whether government or private, must now act as part of the emergency system.

Following the health department's notification, the healthcare commission issued an order placing all private medical facilities on emergency health alert.