'There were 700 ventilators in Karachi when Dr Furqan died'.

Byline: kasim abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- The speculation regarding the death of Dr Furqan-ul-Haq due to the non-availability of ventilators in Karachi seems to be unfair, as it appears there were several hundred free ventilators in the city. As such, the cause of death could be anything other than the non-availability of ventilators; around seven hundred ventilators were free and not in use at the time of Dr. Furqan's death in Karachi.

According to the data shared by an official of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with this correspondent, at this time, Karachi has a total number of 913 ventilators, out of which the government hospitals own 835 while the rest belonging to private hospitals.

While ventilators are extremely scarce following the spike in critical patients of coronavirus all around the world, however, in case of Karachi, the data shared also stated that only 17 COVID-19 patients are on ventilators. Apart from this, the patients who are on ventilators in Karachi for other medical reasons are around one hundred and sixty, according to the information shared by NDMA.

This means that the total numbers of ventilators being used in Karachi are not more than 190. And the ventilators that are still to be used and are free at the moment are above seven hundred.

Therefore, the death of Dr Furqan couldn't be because...