Senior doctor loses fight against coronavirus in Pakistani city of Peshawar

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

A senior doctor at Peshawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex passed away due to COVID-19 early on Saturday, the facility’s director Shehzad Faisal confirmed.

Dr Mohammad Javed was an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist and had been working inside the COVID-19 ward of the hospital. “He was on the front lines to combat the coronavirus,” Faisal said.

He added that Dr Javed had tested positive for the coronavirus a week ago and was on a ventilator. He is the first doctor in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP) to die of the virus. “More than a dozen doctors in KP have tested positive for the coronavirus.”

Offering condolences to the bereaved KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan paid rich tribute to the doctor for his efforts in saving the lives of COVID-19 patients.

“Dr Javed’s sacrifice will always be remembered,” the chief minister said,

In a first, KP will conduct pool testing for COVID-19, which according to health and finance minister Taimur Khan Jhagra has increased the province’s capacity by three to five times.

He said that the COVID-19 testing laboratory at Khyber Medical University (KMU) is now authorised to conduct pool testing.

“After successfully conducting 27 trials on pool testing, with 100pc congruence, the flagship KP coronavirus testing lab at KMU is now mandated to do pool tests — suited for large groups with low prevalence rates; theoretically increasing capacity to test by 3-5x,” he said in a tweet.