Covid surge - Central News Hub

Pakistan on tenterhooks amid Covid rise

The Covid crisis has led to Islamabad’s hospital beds being filled up rapidly. There are a total of 836 hospital beds in Islamabad, of which 525 have been occupied by coronavirus patients…reports Asian Lite News

Pakistan’s medical facilities are crumbling under the mounting pressure from the rapidly escalating COVID-19 situation in the country.

According to Islamabad District Health Officer Zaeem Zia, Islamabad’s coronavirus positivity ratio has risen to 9 per cent as of Saturday, while recording 463 new cases. Zia also said that the rise in infections has been steady for the past three to four weeks, reported Geo News.

The crisis has led to Islamabad’s hospital beds being filled up rapidly. There are a total of 836 hospital beds in Islamabad, of which 525 have been occupied by coronavirus patients, say sources.

Out of the 116 ventilators reserved for COVID-19 patients, 69 are currently under use, and the number is quickly rising.

People walk at a market in eastern Pakistan’s Rawalpindi

Meanwhile, 90 out of 105 beds at the Isolation Hospital and Infectious Treatment Centre (IHITC) are occupied by patients, while 149 out of 183 beds have been filled at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), reported Geo News.

When it comes to ventilators, 10 out of 21 ventilators at PIMS and 12 out of 20 ventilators are being utilised. Moreover, at the Polyclinic Hospital, where all scheduled surgeries have been called off, 100 per cent of ventilators are under operation.

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Sources cited “insufficient arrangements for high flow oxygen beds” at the Federal Government Hospital, where there are reportedly no ventilators available for COVID-19 patients.

Apart from patients, even frontline workers are not safe from the virus, as 46 of the Polyclinic Hospital’s healthcare workers have tested positive for the virus, including two doctors, 17 nurses and 27 paramedics, Geo News reported.

People wearing face masks walk on a road in Rawalpindi of Pakistan’s Punjab province

Oxygen supplies at the hospital have also come under stress with the use rising to three times the usual.

Amid the worrying situation, Pakistan’s National Command and Operations Centre has reported that children are increasingly falling victim to the pandemic, with two children aged between one and 10 years dying from COVID-19 over the course of a single day.

In the month of April, so far seven children have succumbed to the virus.

Pakistan recorded the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday since the outbreak of the pandemic in February last year. At least 157 people died of COVID-19 in a single day, pushing the national tally to 16,999, while 5,908 new infections were reported, ARY News reported citing the NCOC. (ANI)

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Beware of Summer Surge in Covid cases

Britain is likely to see a “summer surge” in coronavirus cases as many adults were still not vaccinated against the disease, a British government advisory scientist said

Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory committee that advises health departments on immunisation, said modelling shows coronavirus cases will rise in the summer as lockdown is relaxed.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

“The models that we’ve seen on JCVI clearly point to a summer surge in cases as the lockdown is relaxed, because there are still many people in the adult population who’ve not been immunized,” he told the BBC.

Finn, from the University of Bristol, said the UK is still “vulnerable” and the dates for easing restrictions may need adjusting.

“Quite a wide range of uncertainty” remains over how big the wave would be “because it depends on how quickly the vaccine rollout continues”, he said.

It also depends on whether people will stick to the rules as lockdown is eased, he said.

“If people move too far forward with that too fast, we’ll see things start to come up earlier,” Finn said.

“The sense that the problem is all over, I’m afraid is a flawed one, we’re still in a vulnerable situation, and there are still significant numbers of people who potentially could be harmed by this infection if this happens.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that as the UK continues to make progress in the fight against coronavirus, “we cannot delude ourselves” that the virus has gone away.

A pedestrian walks by a pub, The Hope, shuttered in London due to coronavirus regulations. Thousands of British pubs have not survived the pandemic, according to an industry association, and the ones that have will need financial support “for years if they are to recover.” Photo: Yui Mok/PA

He noted that the majority of scientific experts are of the view that there will be another wave at some stage this year and Britons must learn to live with the virus.

However, he said there was nothing in scientific data to suggest the UK would have to deviate from the roadmap out of lockdown.

The UK has so far reported 4,411,068 confirmed coronavirus cases and 127,577 deaths.

More than 33 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.

Experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, the UK is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of pandemic on the European continent.