According to the data available, it is visible that a total 46 tests for diagnosis were conducted out of a total 600 medical personnel. Out of these the infected patients are 14, which makes the overall ratio to be nearly 33%.
A few days ago, two doctors, Dr Usama and Dr Saba, working on the quarantine facility established for the zaireen, were tested positive for the virus. After the detection of the coronavirus in the doctors, an uproar generated among the fellow doctors asking the administration to conduct their tests so as to ascertain the situation on the Covid-19 spread.
Generally, considering the high rate of contagion the virus has inflicted, all the medical staff that came in contact with the doctors that were diagnosed should’ve been tested and quarantined, but due to negligence, none of the necessary steps were taken.
Earlier, Naya Daur reported that no precautions were taken after Dr Usama and Dr Saba were tested positive for Covid-19.
During interviews with the medical community working in Dera Ghazi Khan healthcare facility, the doctors told that there was no facility or instruction from the administration regarding the possibility of the spread of the virus among the medical staff.
After facing the ambiguous policy lines from the administration, the doctors decided on their own to isolate themselves. Consequently, the building of the students’ hostels in the Ghazi Khan Medical College, Dera Ghazi Khan, was utilized by the doctors in a way that each doctor isolated themself in a separate room.
However, during all this ordeal, the doctors continue their services to serve in the hospitals’ emergency wards without having proper PPE.
It should be noted that conducting the tests of these 46 persons from the medical staff was not the administration’s idea. In fact, the administration continued to show complete indifference to the evolving scenario. It was only after the protest from the doctors that administration succumbed to the pressure of providing the basic testing facility.
The situation emerging out of Dera Ghazi Khan also poses serious questions on the efficiency and utility of the committees formulated by the Punjab Government to fight against the Covid-19 to ensure the ‘availability of the PPE’.
The members of the committee include a convener, a representative from the District Commissioner, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, CEO District Health Authority, and a representative from the army. As per the notification from the Punjab Secretariat, the primary objective of the said committee is ‘to ensure protection of exposed staff by providing medical services to coronavirus patients’.
A doctor while talking to the Naya Daur told that the army representative has been most unhelpful. ‘He wasn’t, till the last minute,allowing us basic tests, no one is willing to listen to us.”
The doctors have told that so far, a single physician hasn't paid visit to them to evaluate their condition.
Behind all the statements and promises on resolute performance by the federal and provincial governments against the covid-19 pandemic, deep down, however, lies compete shallowness. What’s happening in fight against covid-19 in Dera Ghazi Khan is a grim reminder of all that.