The associations of doctors have urged the government to impose complete lockdown in the country to avoid a catastrophe in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Addressing a joint press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, the representatives of various KP doctor associations said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should impose a complete lockdown for a month as it will be difficult to save the country’s population without it. They said that the prisoners involved in minor cases should also be released while ulema of different sects should review the points of Taraweeh in the holy month of Ramazan. The doctors said that the relaxation in lockdown is causing the virus to spread and opening markets and mosques will further spread the virus. “We have to choose between life and business,” they said. “We have shortage of doctors, ventilators and protecting kits,” they said, and added if this continues, there won’t be any space in the hospitals very soon.
Women doctors in Sindh also lambasted the government’s inaction and the people’s indifference towards preventive measures in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, noting that if doctors started dying, there will be no one to treat the patients at hospitals.
At least six women doctors held a press conference, relaying the dire condition of Pakistan’s healthcare system, which they explained is on the verge of a collapse as hospitals are overflowing with patients and 80% of the beds have already been occupied. “I’m not a god,” Dr Safia said during the press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC), noting that it is unfair to treat one patient and leave another to die. “This is an extremely painful thing and we’re seeing people dying right in front of us,” she said. “There have been patients who were infected with the coronavirus and we were unable to do anything for them. It is extremely painful to see them [dying]. Whoever dies was someone’s mother, a woman,” she added.
Dr Safia mentioned that it was said there would be a peak in the number of cases and ‘we tried to make it a plateau’ in the curve. “The first lockdown was in Sindh, for which we are immensely thankful to the government of Sindh, who implemented an amazing and effective lockdown. Had there been no lockdown or a partial one, the healthcare system would have collapsed outright,” she noted.
