In an extremely shameful act, Pakistan sent used and damaged PPE kits to the hospitals in POJK continuing to treat the region discriminately during the corona virus outbreak, some of the masks received were even stained red. Although, these kits were later destroyed by the hospital to ensure safety but Pakistan’s act of making POJK a dumping ground for used PPE kits has been condemned by the health officials in the region. With compromised testing and lack of trained medical staff, POJK has so far registered 133 COVID-19 cases while Gilgit-Baltistan has 556 positive cases.

 

 

 

 

The poor healthcare facilities in Pakistan were once again exposed when authorities at Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zaid Combined Military Hospital in Muzaffarabad complained of receiving personal protective equipment (PPEs) which were already used, with some of them stained with betel leaf.

 

 

 

 

Exposing the heinous act through its official account CMH Muzaffarabad, the hospital disclosed that it has received around 3 lakh PPE kits from military hospital, Rawalpindi but the kits that were received were already used before. Some of the masks were even stained red and after lab testing it was found those were paan stains, stated the officials of the hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although, as per the hospital protocol, all the kits were destroyed to ensure no infection gets spread in the hospital. But after receiving a fake made-in-China testing machine, it is shocking how it has become a dumping ground for used PPE kits.

 

 

 

The hospital was constructed with humanitarian assistance donated by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates to alleviate the sufferings of the people of the region, who were affected by the devastating earthquake in 2005.

 

 

 

With poor testing and trained medical staff, POJK has registered 133 Covid-19 cases whereas Gilgit Baltistan has reported 556 positive cases. Pakistan’s tally of coronavirus cases soared to 45,898, with 1,932 new ones reported on Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

The doctors in POJK held protests against the Pakistan government for its failure to provide PPE kits to treat Covid-19 patients. However, many of these healthcare workers denied going to hospitals without PPE kits, which have affected the testing and treatment of suspected coronavirus patients.

 

 

 

The disgraceful and inhumane way in which Islamabad has been discriminately treating POJK and Gilgit Baltistan during the outbreak, has directly affected the lives of people in the regions.