Covid patients avoid hospital in Punjab.

LAHORE -- At least six people have fallen victim to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in a locality of Township during the past couple of weeks owing to the growing fear of hospitals among the citizens, The Express Tribune learnt on Saturday.

Family members and locals of the neighbourhood highlighted that most of the victims had some previous disease history and they breathed their last fighting a cardiac or respiratory disorder.

Sheikh Mannan, a relative of a middle-aged patient who passed away recently, said his uncle had been suffering from high-grade fever for a few days and was under medical treatment of a local physician. A couple of days before his death, though the fever had been controlled, he started complaining of difficulty in breathing.

'My uncle,' he disclosed, 'had suffered a heart attack in the past so all his family members paid special attention to his treatment. His daughters were trained to bring him to the Jinnah Hospital or some nearBy: clinic in case of any emergency. But this time, they preferred to treat their father at home on the advice of a physician because they were scared of hospitals,' he maintained.

'Their physician told the family to bring the patient to some good private hospital for treatment as public hospitals are already over-crowded and chances of recovery are limited. Since my uncle was a small travel bags' trader having limited resources, his daughters preferred to keep him home,' Mannan said and demanded that the authorities regulate the tariff of private hospitals as people had started preferring to suffer at home.

Malik Irfan, a resident of the same neighbourhood, pointed out that some two weeks ago a middle-aged couple passed away in the same street of cardiac arrest. He highlighted that the husband suffered a heart attack and was shifted to Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC). 'After a couple of days, his children brought him back owing to limited capacity in the hospital.

They were administering oxygen to the patient at home owing to difficulty in breathing. But he could not survive,' he disclosed. 'The news proved...