Less than 50% hospital beds for COVID-19 used

Till now, less than 50% of hospital beds earmarked for the coronavirus infected in Pakistan have been utilized, states a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

As per the report, dated May 19, Pakistan has set aside 21,085 beds in public hospitals across the country for patients of the novel virus. Of these, 9,919 have been occupied, which comes to nearly 47% of the total.

Furthermore, of the hospitalised, nearly 4% are in critical condition.

The total number of confirmed cases in Pakistan, as of Thursday, is 46,915. While, the virus has killed 1,003 people.

Since some patients are housed in hospitals, a large majority, around 20,000m have been isolated in homes or at designated isolation facilities, the report adds.

Last week, Punjab allowed asymptomatic patients of the virus to self-isolate at home, provided that government officials regularly check on them to ensure that proper safety guidelines are being followed. After which, 475 applications for home isolation have now been accepted in the province, according to the daily situation report of Punjab’s Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department.