PESHAWAR: Doctors in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Sunday its frontline medical workers were confronting a shortage of medical gear and personal protective equipment to shelter them from COVID-19, as another five health workers tested positive for the disease bringing the total number of medics infected in the province to 55.

The statement from the chief of the provincial doctor’s association came a day after a senior medical practitioner, Dr. Muhammad Javed, died from contracting the coronavirus in Peshawar.

“Senior doctors, frontline medical practitioners and nurses face dearth of eye gear, surgical gowns and masks throughout KP hospitals,” PDA President, Dr. Amir Taj told Arab News on Sunday.

“Another daunting challenge is that our testing capacity for coronavirus patients is abysmally low, which offers a space for affected people to mingle in society, posing formidable challenge to health workers,” he added.

According to the latest figures shared by the KP Relief and Rehabilitation department, the province has reported a total of 1,793 cases with 93 deaths as of April 25. 

The doctors’ concerns come in the wake of an easing in the federal government’s lockdown measures during the holy month of Ramadan, with congregational Taraweeh prayers allowed in mosques as Pakistan reported its highest 24-hour surge in COVID-19 cases on Sunday.

Dr. Taj said the only available option to contain the fast-spreading virus was a complete lockdown, and urged the government to implement social distancing and force people to stay at home.

“If we fail to enforce a complete lockdown, health sector tends to collapse because frontline medical workers will end up infected, leaving the patients in a lurch,” he added. 

He said KP was facing serious social distancing issues, which could not be implemented in letter and spirit by the government. 

“Unfortunately, we have a lockdown only on social media but its implementation on the ground is inefficient,” he said.

He added that another problem the KP health sector was grappling with was a shortage of ventilators in provincial hospitals. There were only 1,200 ventilators in the province in total, he said, which was a matter of serious concern. Roughly 35 million people live in KP.

Spokesman for the provincial government, Ajmal Khan Wazir, told Arab News the country’s health workers deserved all the praise for fighting tirelessly against the pandemic within available resources.

“Our chief minister has already pledged to nominate late Dr. Javed for civil award in recognition of his matchless sacrifice,” Wazir said.

The KP government was well aware about the pressing problems of the doctors’ community, Wazir said, and added his government would leave no stone unturned to ensure the supply of PPE, gowns and masks to its health workers.

“We have just allocated Rs8 billion and Rs6 billion to stabilize our health sector and Relief and Rehabilitation department. We ensure supply chain of medical equipment but still if any hospital faces shortage of needed PPE, special cells of provincial government can be approached to ameliorate things,” he said. 

But Dr. Taj said more needed to be done.

“More is needed to be done to equip hospitals and get PPE to the frontline workers to reverse the tide of the virus. Separate wards for COVID-19 affected patients will better manage them on one hand while on other it will protect health professionals,” he said.