Current Final

Category: Health

  • Flight from UAE carries 104 coronavirus patients to Pakistan

    Flight from UAE carries 104 coronavirus patients to Pakistan

    The Rawalpindi district administration on Monday said that 104 passengers who were flown in from Abu Dhabi have tested positive for coronavirus.

    “Out of 209 passengers, 104 tested positive for COVID-19,” the district administration said, adding that the flight carrying the passengers had arrived in Islamabad on April 28.

    Following the SOPs prepared by the government, all the passengers were screened at the airport and were shifted to the quarantine centre at Fatima Jinnah Women University.

    With the country having blocked all international commercial flights since mid-March — a ban that’s now set to continue for an indefinite period of time — many of the country’s residents have struggled to find a path back to their homeland, making government repatriation flights a necessity.

    On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 22 more fatalities from novel coronavirus as the death toll in the country has reached 471. The nationwide tally of COVID-19 patients jumped to 20,725 while over a thousand cases were reported in 24 hours.

    According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center, Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

    Till now 7,882 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 7,646 in Punjab, 3,129 in KP, 1,218 in Balochistan, 415 in Islamabad, 364 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 71 in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK).

    Earlier in the day, it was reported that three crew members of a special PIA flight from Australia had also tested positive for COVID-19.

    The PIA staffers had performed duties on the flight from Melbourne to Lahore.

  • Punjab unable to locate 1,012 suspected COVID-19 patients in Lahore, Sialkot and Multan

    The Punjab government is trying to trace 1,012 suspected carriers of the deadly COVID-19 in various areas of the province, a private media outlet has reported.

    Quoting officials, the report said these suspected carriers, who are scattered mainly in Lahore, Sialkot and Multan, have been included in the final tally of the confirmed cases until they test negative for the virus. Of these 1,012 suspected carriers, 691 are in Lahore, 87 in Sialkot and 72 in Multan.

    The report also quoted Punjab Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department Deputy Secretary Mudasir Ahmed as saying that the suspected patients are contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients. The official said that they are gathering their phone numbers and addresses of these suspected patients and there is a “big and successful mechanism” in place for contract-tracing in the province.

    Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director Operations Nisar Ahmed told the news outlet that they already know where all the positive cases are, so the people they came into contact with must also be carriers of the virus. He added that they were currently trying to trace these suspected carriers.

    Punjab has over 6,200 confirmed cases of the deadly virus, the highest in the country.

  • Over 700 dead after consuming poison to cure COVID-19

    Over 700 dead after consuming poison to cure COVID-19

    More than 700 people have died after ingesting toxic methanol, thinking it can cure the new coronavirus — COVID-19.

    According to Al Jazeera, the incident took place in Iran where the national coroner’s authority says that alcohol poisoning has killed 728 Iranians between February 20 and April 7 amid the coronavirus outbreak as compared to last year’s 66 fatalities from the same.

    An adviser to the Iranian Health Ministry, Hossein Hassanian, said that the difference in death tallies is because some alcohol poisoning victims died outside of hospital.

    Some 200 people died outside of hospitals, Hassanian was quoted as saying.

    Iran is facing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East with 5,806 deaths and more than 91,000 confirmed case.

    Methanol cannot be smelled or tasted in drinks. It causes delayed organ and brain damage. Symptoms include chest pain, nausea, hyperventilation, blindness and even coma.

    In Iran, the government mandates that manufacturers of toxic methanol add an artificial color to their products so the public can tell it apart from ethanol, the kind of alcohol that can be used in cleaning wounds. Ethanol is found in alcoholic beverages, though its production is illegal in Iran.

    READ: Britain, France, Germany bypass US sanctions to send medical aid to virus-hit Iran

    Some bootleggers in Iran use methanol, adding a splash of bleach to mask the added color before selling it as drinkable. Methanol also can contaminate traditionally fermented alcohol.

    The consumption of alcohol is generally prohibited in Iran. However, minority Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians can drink alcoholic beverages in private.

    Following the coronavirus outbreak, Iran’s government announced it would issue permission for new alcohol factories quickly.

    Iran has currently some 40 alcohol factory that have been allocated for pharmaceutical and sanitising items.

    The report comes days after United States (US) President Donald Trump raised the possibility of injecting disinfectant into patients, causing an international uproar with manufacturers, doctors and government agencies rushing out warnings against consuming disinfectants like bleach.

  • 21 cops on Sunday, 92 health professionals in two days test positive for coronavirus

    21 cops on Sunday, 92 health professionals in two days test positive for coronavirus

    At least 21 Punjab Police officials on Sunday and 92 health professionals within the last two days have tested positive for the new coronavirus. The sudden spike in the number of health professionals contracting the virus has increased the national tally of infected doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff to 345.

    As per the details of the infected cops, additional inspector general (AIG) operations has said that over 60 police personnel were tested for the virus, out of which 21 tested positive. One of the cops was deployed at the Central Police Office (CPO) whereas the results of many others are awaited.

    While cops dealing with masses are at a greater risk to contract COVID-19 and incidents of them falling sick have been reported from various parts of the country, health professionals remain on the frontline in the battle against the global pandemic.

    According to a Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination official, the number of health professionals contracting the virus increased to 345 from 253 after new cases were detected among the medical community.

    The official said that doctors are the most-affected among healthcare professionals with over 165 of them now undergoing treatment across the country. As many as 131 members of paramedical and support staff, as well as 41 nurses, have also contracted the virus.

    Apart from the confirmed cases, more than 1,500 doctors, nurses, paramedics and those with whom they came into contact, are in quarantine. Many are waiting for their test results after coming into contact with health professionals who have already tested positive, the official said.

    They added that most of the cases of coronavirus among health professionals had been reported in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab, while a few cases had also been reported in Sindh and the federal capital.

  • Much-awaited coronavirus drug ‘fails in first trial’

    Much-awaited coronavirus drug ‘fails in first trial’

    A potential antiviral drug for the coronavirus has reportedly failed in its first randomised clinical trial, Financial Times reported.

    According to reports, there had been widespread hope that remdesivir could treat the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — that has left at least 191,000 people dead and 2.7 million infected across the globe.

    But a Chinese trial showed that the drug had not been successful, according to draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization (WHO).

    The drug did not improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream, it said.

    Researchers studied 237 patients, giving the drug to 158 and comparing their progress with the remaining 79. The drug also showed significant side effects in some, which meant 18 patients were taken off it.

    Interest in the drug, had been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases.

    The United States (US) firm behind the drug, Gilead Sciences, is testing it in multiple trials, and highly anticipated trial results from a study involving 400 patients hospitalised with severe cases of the illness are expected later this month.

    It says the WHO documents mischaracterised the study.

    Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is being tried against COVID-19 because it is designed to disable the mechanism by which certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, make copies of themselves and potentially overwhelm their host’s immune system.

  • COVID-19 cases in Pakistan can rise to 200,000 by July, warns World Health Organization

    COVID-19 cases in Pakistan can rise to 200,000 by July, warns World Health Organization

    The number of estimated coronavirus cases in Pakistan can rise to 200,000 by mid-July if “effective interventions” are not taken, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.

    According to WHO Director General (DG) Dr Tedros Adhanom, who was speaking at the launch of a virtual conference titled “Pakistan National Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan”, without effective interventions, there could be an estimated 200,000 cases by mid-July, the impacts of which on the economy could be devastating and double the number of people living in poverty.

    He said that the required funding for the plan was $595 million, which would be allocated to support various measures.

    “We must act in solidarity, with a coherent, coordinated approach,” Dr Tedros was quoted as saying.

    The statement from the global health body comes at a time when coronavirus cases in Pakistan have reached 10,982 with at least 230 fatalities.

  • Top doctors, healthcare professionals ask for strict countrywide lockdown

    Top doctors, healthcare professionals ask for strict countrywide lockdown

    Senior doctors and top healthcare professionals issued a stern warning on Wednesday and appealed to the federal and provincial governments to reconsider relaxation in lockdown given that they fear a spike in coronavirus cases in the country. Doctors said easing relaxation could prove disastrous for Pakistan.

    Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Dr Saad Niaz said that from April 16-April 21, cases have increased around 40 percent.

    “If we don’t strictly enforce lockdown measures, the projected number of coronavirus cases may go up to 70,000 by May 15,” he stated.

    Dr Saad also said that we don’t have the testing capacity. “We are not safe. These are just myths. If there had been no lockdown initially, things would have been worse…Wards are already saturated. We have more patients under the age of 60 than in western countries. We have to realise that we don’t have enough healthcare facilities to cope with cases…In fact, severity is much more than what we think.”

    He said that more than 162 healthcare workers have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Sindh alone. “Don’t take this lightly based on myths. Neither is there any cure nor do we have the capacity to cope with the cases. Lockdown helped contain the spread. The only thing that can help is complete social distancing and lockdown. We know that at least 200 people have died of coronavirus in the last month alone. We don’t want to get to a point where we will be treating people on the roads or deciding who to save – the 35-year-old patient or the 55-year-old one. We are taking risks. It is very depressing for us to see that everything is being opened while we are at the frontline of this war against corona.”

    Watch the complete video of doctor’s press conference here.

    Meanwhile, Dr Atif Siddiqui said that doctors are there for you but please stay at home. “We are running out of beds. We need to understand why the number of cases are increasing.”

    The list of demands by healthcare professionals included :

    • Strict enforcement of lockdown and prevention of congregation of all sorts
    • People will have to cooperate. Do not leave your houses
    • Request the business community to reconsider opening businesses
    • Appeal to religious scholars to review decision to keep mosques open

  • Punjab lab declares 60-year-old man as pregnant

    A laboratory in Khanewal has declared that a 60-year-old man, identified as Allah Ditta, was pregnant.

    According to the details, the lab issued a report stating that the man’s urine test had confirmed his pregnancy.

    Following the news, Khanewal’s district commissioner sealed the lab and arrested its owner, Amin.

    The blood transfusion lab was located across from Khanewal DHQ Hospital and was being operated for the past two years. According to the police, Amin previously worked as a technician at the hospital’s blood laboratory.

    The health department, after an investigation, confirmed that the lab was being run illegally and had not been issued a license.

    A case has been registered and Amin has been handed over to the police.

    Further probe is underway.

  • Broken seals at Wuhan lab holding 1,500 different strains of virus, including bat coronavirus

    Broken seals at Wuhan lab holding 1,500 different strains of virus, including bat coronavirus

    In a rare glimpse inside a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan amid global suspicions about the COVID-19 pandemic, scenes from the “secretive” Institute of Virology have sent shockwaves over the internet.

    According to Mail Online, pictures from inside the laboratory show a broken seal on the door of one of the refrigerators used to hold 1,500 different strains of virus, including the bat coronavirus that has jumped to humans with over 2.4 million infections and over 165,000 deaths since the first case in November last year.

    The pictures, first released by a state-owned Chinese newspaper in 2018, were also published on Twitter last month, before being deleted.

    Meanwhile, according to New York Post, the director of the lab denies that the bug accidentally spread from his facility.

    “There’s no way this virus came from us,” Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, told state media.

    Yuan admitted that the lab is studying “different areas related to the coronavirus,” but told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN that none of his staff has been infected.

    “As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples,” he said.

    He said that since the lab is in Wuhan “people can’t help but make associations”, but claimed that some media outlets are “deliberately trying to mislead people”.

    But officials in the past have raised concerns over the safety conditions of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

    In March 2018, US science diplomats dispatched to the lab issued two “sensitive” diplomatic cables about inadequate safety measures at the lab, the Washington Post reported, citing intelligence sources.

    The first cable warned the experiments conducted in the lab on coronavirus in bats “represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic,” according to the report.

    The cable, written by two US-China embassy officials, said there is a “serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” according to the report.

  • After Al-Fatah denial, DIG Operations Lahore confirms coronavirus positive employees

    After Al-Fatah denial, DIG Operations Lahore confirms coronavirus positive employees

    Rumours that Al-Fatah’s large department store at Hussain Chowk in Gulberg, Lahore had employees that tested positive for coronavirus was doing the rounds this week. The store was closed and customers were told that the closure was for fumigation and that the rumours were false. Delivery was still open.

    When DIG Operations Lahore was asked on Twitter whether the rumours were true or false, he confirmed that three employees tested positive for coronavirus and that the store was closed.

    Lahoris also alleged that Al Fatah had posted a notice denying the rumours and had deleted the notices today.

    There were notices posted outside the store and people called in to find out what was going on. People who called were told that there was fumigation going on but the news of positive cases was not true.

    The notice, which was saved by twitter users is now circulating on the social media platform with people asking why it was deleted.

    https://twitter.com/nabihameher/status/1251835072459800577?s=21