Altaf Hamid Rao:
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : The wide-spread COVID-19 not only gripped thousands of people tested positive since the outbreak of the pandemic in lake district of Mirpur Azad Jammu & Kashmir but also trapped at least 113 front-line workers medicos including doctors, nurses and para-medical staff in Mirpur Divisional Headquarters Teaching hospital, official sources said.
“The state-of-the-art 160-bed Corona ward of the Mirpur Div. HQ Hospital presently contains a total of 54 indoor patients of the novel corona virus including 46 patients at high-flow oxygen level and rest of 08 patients at low-flow oxygen level”, disclosed Medical Superintendent of the Mirpur Div. HQ Teaching Hospital Dr. Farooq Ahmed Noor while talking to our Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao here on Friday.
The MS said that with the continual rising trend of the pandemic in this native district of over a million of the UK-based expatriates, the overall ratio of the positive cases has raised to 15 percent so far.
Dr. Noor continued that the hospital-based front-line medical workers fallen sick of the pandemic included 60 doctors, 18 nurses and 35 para-medical staffers during last three months period following their continual round-the-clock duties because of the emergent situation at various stages. Of these front-line affected medical workers, 102 were recovered completely so far. Rest of 11 affectees are under treatment in the hospital, he added.
Unveiling the overall breakup of the negative repercussions of the pandemic in Mirpur, the Medical Superintendent of the Mirpur Div. Teaching Headquarter hospital stated that the pandemic claimed over 160 lives so far in the hospital since the outburst of the pandemic. Those died included over a hundred of the persons who were tested positive but could not survive after they had reached the-last staged worst conditions of the disease. “Besides, 60 other patients lost their lives because of the worst conditions of their lungs – although they were tested negative during their treatment”, he added.
Categorically denying the reports about shortage of oxygen in the corona ward of the hospital, the Medical Superintendent said that the stock of over 160 oxygen cylinder was available as stand-bye for dispensation for every next 24 hours. Besides the extra stock of 100 numbers of the oxygen cylinders have been made available from Jhelum under extra-ordinary arrangements to save the lives of the affectees of the pandemic admitted in Corona medical ward of the hospital.
To a question, Dr. Farooq Noor said that unfortunately Mirpur emerged, yet, the only district across Azad Jammu Kashmir which continually reported the rising trend of the pandemic – since it was not ever reported at decline during both first and second spells of the pandemic, he added while referring to the influx of the indoor and outdoor patients of the landed in his hospital since the outbreak of the pandemic.
