Post-lockdown surge in Covid -19 cases poses fresh challenge to caregivers.

Byline: Asif Chaudhry

LAHORE -- The Covid-19 pandemic may lead to a surge in the number of critically-ill patients and shortage of ventilators in the intensive care units of teaching hospitals in Punjab in the coming weeks.

The medical and health experts say the situation is not as alarming as is being portrayed as around 30-40 per cent ventilators are occupied in Punjab.

According to the official figures, 1,296 ventilators were available at the state-run teaching hospitals of Punjab.Of them, 40 were non-functional.

The hospitals may become overburdened in the coming weeks as the province has witnessed 20 per cent surge in the number of patients coming with respiratory failure during home isolation due to the severity of the virus.

'Next seven days are very critical for us as the incubation period for Covid-19 after relaxation of lockdown on May 14 has almost come to an end,' says Mayo Hospital Chief Executive Prof Dr Asad Aslam Khan. He is supervising and leading the healthcare arrangements for coronavirus patients in the state-run health facilities in Lahore.

Quoting a research from China, he said, patients take five days to two weeks to develop symptoms of the coronavirus.

'At present, we are not facing any disturbing situation in respect of availability of facilities for the treatment of critical patients of Covid-19,' he said.

However, hospitals are feeling an impact of Covid-19 pandemic as they have started receiving patients with severity of the disease or lungs failure.

'The home isolation has eased massive burden on the hospitals but for the medics, ICUs' management would be the next area of concern due to expected influx of critically-ill Covid-19 patients,' Prof Aslam said.

The Mayo Hospital chief executive who is also member of the Corona Experts Advisory Group Punjab, shared fresh situation of critical and other patients of Covid-19 in Lahore's all public and private...

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