PIDE COVID-19 Blog (no. 3) : Protecting the saviours healthcare workers and covid-19

Abstract

“The capacity of the health care system in Pakistan to handle the COVID 19 pandemic is woefully limited. The country’s case tally has reached 892 patients, and nobody knows how many more would be infected in the coming days. The impact of this Corona pandemic on health care system is astronomical in two ways. First, it has the potential to stress the capacity of the health care system easily. Second, it has adverse effects on healthcare workers, which includes the risk of getting infection and transmission of the virus to other colleagues, patients, and household members. In Pakistan, we are deplorably unprepared to protect health care personnel. The current estimates show that the likelihood of getting an infection for a health care provider is more than three times as high as the general population. In China, more than 3,300 health care workers were infected with COVID 19. Likewise, in Italy, 20% of the health care workers are COVID 19 positive.”