Sindh faces shortage of COVID-19 testing staff in hospitals, medical centres
June 25, 2020
KARACHI: The capacity of holding coronavirus tests have reduced by 50% in Sindh as staffers responsible for conducting these tests in hospitals, laboratories and medical centres have drastically reduced after being infected from the COVID-19, Geo News reported on Thursday.
Due to less staff members available for coronavirus testing, the staffers available are facing difficulties in completing the backlog as the number of COVID-19 patients continue to surge across Sindh.
About 13,890 tests were conducted on June 21, 9,841 tests were carried out on June 22 and the number was further reduced to only 6,597 tests on June 23.
The Sindh Health Department did not release the data on June 23, however, according to the Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, about 7,400 tests were conducted in the province on June 24.
Also read: Is Pakistan testing enough people for COVID-19?
As per the health department, thousands of test results were on hold in other laboratories including Civil, Jinnah, Ojha and Karachi University due to the shortage of medical staff.
In addition, the home-based testing facility has been shut down since last week.
The number of coronavirus cases ae increasing day by day in Sindh. So far, the total number of patients in the province total to 74,070, whereas 1,161 patients have succumbed to the virus in Sindh.
