Doctor in Karachi hospital tests positive for coronavirus

KARACHI: A doctor at Karachi’s Abbasi Shaheed Hospital contracted the coronavirus on Saturday, confirmed the hospital administration.

The administration said that after the doctor tested positive for the virus, the rest of the staff working alongside her were also being tested to determine whether they had been infected or not.

It was learnt that the female doctor’s husband, who is also a doctor at the Civil Hospital Karachi, had contacted the virus earlier. Hospital authorities suspected the doctor had contracted the virus from her husband. 

The administration of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said that the staff, who came into contact with the doctor in question, have been asked to go into isolation.

The incidents of doctors, who have been battling on the frontlines without the guarantee of adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), getting infected with the virus are on the rise.

On March 27, Punjab’s Primary and Secondary Health Care Department said that two doctors involved in the fight against coronavirus had positive for the disease. The spokesperson for the department stated that the doctors had been performing their duties at a quarantine centre in Dera Ghazi Khan when they started showing symptoms associated with COVID-19.

Earlier, a doctor had lost his life in Gilgit-Baltistan while performing his duties at one of the quarantine centres in the region.

Dr Usama Riaz, who was screening pilgrims who had returned to Pakistan from Iran, had tested positive and could not survive.

Pakistan as of Saturday reported more than 2,700 cases and 41 deaths.