MARDAN: Police in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province presented a guard of honor to doctors and paramedics in front of Quetta’s Sheikh Zayed and Fatima Jinnah hospitals on Saturday, following a similar salute to Punjab’s health care professionals at the gates of Lahore’s iconic Mayo Hospital on Friday.
On Saturday, the official tally of confirmed cases in the country had surged to over 1,400 with the majority of the cases in eastern Punjab province, followed closely by southern Sindh.
“Coronavirus has been declared a global pandemic and we are also feeling its impact,” Quetta’s senior superintendent of police, Tariq Mastoi, told Arab News and added that the ceremony was held to salute the “frontline soldiers” in the ongoing war against the elusive pathogen.
“Doctors, paramedics and others working in hospitals are fighting at the frontline of this battle and we salute them for their work,” the officer said, adding that the police wanted to boost the morale of medical practitioners and other hospital staff during this time of crisis.
In a widely circulated video, doctors and medical staff at Mayo Hospital stood in rainy Lahore with their hands on their hearts before the Punjab police on Friday, as they too were presented a guard of honor salute.
“It’s great to see our staff, who have shown such bravery and are working tirelessly, being appreciated in this manner,” Dr. Mumraiz Naqshband of Mayo Hospital, who is among Pakistan’s frontline health care professionals, told Arab News.
But the doctors deserve protection as well as appreciation, said chief of a representative body of doctors, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).
According to Qaiser Sajjad, General Secretary of PMA, it was the government’s responsibility to provide protective gear to doctors so they could fight the virus more courageously.
“Currently, doctors are fighting this battle without weapons,” he said. “Doctors deserve appreciation as well as protection.”
“The way police are saluting doctors across the country is absolutely great,” he added. ”I salute those who salute doctors and paramedics.
Last week, a 26 year old doctor from Pakistan’s northern Gilgit Baltistan lost his life when he contracted the virus after screening patients without appropriate personal protective equipment.
On Saturday, Dr. Raheem Babar, spokesperson for the Young Doctor’s Association in Balochistan told Arab News that two senior dental surgeons had tested positive for the virus in Quetta. Dentists are at especially high risk from the coronavirus infection which is spread via droplets from the mouth and nose.
On Saturday, the PMA said at least six doctors in Punjab and Sindh had also tested positive for the virus.