Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: Another doctor succumbed to the deadly coronavirus here in the city after days of battling for his life on the ventilator, an official confirmed on Sunday.
His death has raised Pakistan’s death toll of medics who died of the infection to 18. Dr Aurangzeb, a senior pathologist at Police Services Hospital, Peshawar, was on the ventilator for the last four days, according to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) Director Dr Shahzad Akbar, and passed away today.
Hospital officials said Dr Aurangzeb was also diabetic.
With the pathologist’s death today, the total number of doctors who have succumbed to the coronavirus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to four, the provincial doctors’ association noted. KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan expressed grief over the demise of Dr Aurangzeb, saying doctors were “busy saving others’ lives by putting their own lives in danger”.
“The services of doctors in treating coronavirus patients are commendable,” Khan said. “Every possible help will be given to the families of the doctors who died of coronavirus.” The novel coronavirus has so far infected 1,904 healthcare workers in Pakistan and 17 have died since the outbreak first emerged, according to official data in Geo News report on Saturday.
The new data provides sobering evidence that doctors, paramedics, nurses, and other healthcare providers are working in high-risk areas without adequate protection gear. In Sindh, 538 healthcare professional have tested positive for the coronavirus and eight have died, a report by the ministry of national health services dated May 29 stated.
