Punjab Institute of Cardiology staff test positive for COVID-19 after showing no symptoms

LAHORE: Several doctors and other medical staffers from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the facility's Chief Executive Officer Dr Saqib Shafi confirmed on Tuesday.

Shafi said that over 400 of the facility's staff had been screened for the virus. 

The infected include six doctors, 10 nurses, and seven staff members, Dr Shafi said, adding that they exhibited no symptoms of the virus.

Surgeon Prof Aftab Younas, a faculty member of the PIC and the first medic of the hospital to contract the virus, was discharged on Saturday after testing negative, according to The News.

Dr Shafi said that the hospital administration had shut down the operation theatre for four days after Prof Younas had tested positive and that after disinfecting it operations have resumed.  

Incidents of doctors, who have been battling on the frontlines without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), catching the virus are on the rise.

At least two doctors, one each from Sindh and Gilgit-Baltistan, have lost their lives after contracting COVID-19. 

Dr Usama Riaz, from GB, was part of 10-member team of the doctors tasked with screening patients returning from downtowns, particularly those arriving there from Iran via Taftan. He later started providing services to the suspected patients in isolation centres established for them in Gilgit.

Dr Abdul Qadir Soomro, from Sindh, contracted coronavirus while treating his patients in the Gulshan-e-Hadeed locality of Karachi, and when his condition deteriorated, he approached the Indus Hospital Karachi where he tested positive for the viral ailment and was admitted to the isolation ward.

Meanwhile, the country has reported over 9,500 COVID-19 cases with more than 200 deaths.

At the time this report was filed, Punjab was in the lead with 4,195 cases, Sindh had 3,053, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1,276, Balochistan 465, Islamabad 185, Gilgit-Baltistan 281, and AJK 50.