‘Just 2 ventilators, no medical aid’: Pakistan’s Covid-19 hotspot cries for help

Mangalore Today News Network

Islamabad, Jun 05, 2020: In one of the badly-affected regions by Covid-19 in Pakistan, people are facing severe threats due to lack of medical facilities and food shortages.

Gilgit-Baltistan, the region bordering China’s Xinjiang province, has already reported over 800 coronavirus cases but there is no medical infrastructure to deal with the crisis, Hindustan Times reported.

 

Reports in Pakistani media, quoted by news agency ANI, say that Gilgit-Baltistan has only two old model ventilators and the region has not received any medical aid and supplies from the federal government.

Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza, a human rights activist, claimed in a tweet that there are only two ventilators in Gilgit-Baltistan.

“They (government) receive funds and donations, but they use those funds for their own purpose and not for the welfare of people. However, they do not realise that it is the people who have mandated them to power and position. I hereby request the authorities to pay attention to this region, which was already deprived of rights. Now with coronavirus, the unemployment has grown massively,” Mohammad Bakar Mehedi, a lawyer based in Astore, told local media.

Meanwhile, doctors at hospitals in Pakistan are bracing for a surge of Covid-19 patients as the country’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed the number in neighbouring China.

Pakistan’s confirmed cases jumped to 85,264 on Thursday after officials reported 4,688 new infections during the previous 24 hours and 82 deaths, a single-day record for virus-related fatalities.

The developments prompted the government to order the closure of all shopping malls and markets where social distancing regulations are being ignored.

Pakistan has witnessed a steady increase in infections and deaths since last month, when the government lifted a lockdown that was enforced in March to slow the spread of the new virus.

A total of 1,770 people in Pakistan have died in the pandemic.