Rapid rise in COVID-19 cases: Ventilators' shortage can potentially pose a serious challenge to government

With the number of COVID-19 patients on the rapid rise in Pakistan coupled with increasing mortality rate, the shortage of ventilators can potentially pose a serious challenge to the government as more patients are likely to be put on ventilators to save their lives in the days to come.
This was the warning given by several healthcare professionals in an anecdotal survey carried out by Business Recorder.
The number of coronavirus fatalities in Pakistan recorded at 21 with 1,664 confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, till Monday evening. In Islamabad, the number of coronavirus patients doubled in less than a week, jumping from 25 to 51. In Punjab, the coronavirus cases tally surpassed 638, followed by 508 cases in Sindh, 192 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 141 in Balochistan and 134 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir/Gilgit Baltistan.
"The situation may get serious in the days to come, which means we would have to take urgent measures to save lives in the days to come," a senior medical officer at a major public sector hospital told Business Recorder on the condition of anonymity.
Presently, Pakistan has over 22,00 ventilators including over 1,300 in Punjab, more than 500 in Sindh, over 150 in KP, over 50 in Balochistan and over 50 in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
"So far, the situation is quite manageable keeping in view that mortality rate of coronavirus patients is usually two percent of the total COVID-19 patients. This means, roughly, two to three percent patients of the total number of coronavirus patients may be in life threatening situation and need ventilators.
Given that the number of coronavirus patients in Pakistan presently is less than 1,700, the two percent of this figure is 34 maximum. And out of 2,200 plus ventilators, half (1,100 plus) can be spared for coronavirus patients which are quite sufficient to take care of 34 patients or so. We don't need to panic at the moment," he said.
"But if mortality rate keeps increasing and reaches several hundreds, then there can be serious challenges keeping in view that there are other patients in big numbers who need ventilators for the treatment of deadly ailments like cancer, cardiac related diseases and other ailments," he added.
Head of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a hospital told Business Recorder, that there has been acute shortage of ventilators worldwide due to increasing number of those coronavirus patients who are in serious or life-threatening conditions.
Highlighting the gravity of the situation, the source referred to a recent outburst from President of the United States Donald Trump against General Motors and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Barra for not providing the number of ventilators the US needed.
"As usual with 'this' General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed ventilators, very quickly". Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke 'P'," Trump tweeted on March 27.
"If a country as developed and powerful as the US is exasperated by the delay in the production and delivery of ventilators, it is not difficult to imagine what the situation would be like in Pakistan if the mortality rate reaches an alarming level," the source said.
Last week, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal told media that Pakistan aimed to acquire 10,000 ventilators in the coming months to battle COVID-19. However, presently only 20 ventilators are in the process of being delivered to Pakistan, government sources said.