COVID-19: Hospitals in PoK get used PPE kits, masks with 'paan' stains

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.

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. The hospital tweeted from its official account, CMH Muzaffarabad, "Hospital across AJK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) has received around 3 lakh PPE kits from a military hospital, Rawalpindi but the kit we got in our hospital were already used before. Some of the masks had a red stain on them, after lab testing it was found those were paan stain."

"As per our hospital protocol, we destroyed all kits to ensure no infection gets spread in our hospital. It's shameful that after receiving fake Made-in-China testing machine, AJK has now become a dumping ground for used PPE kits," the Twitter thread added. 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.

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

Earlier, the doctors in PoK held protests against the 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.

Islamabad has been discriminately treating PoK and Gilgit Baltistan during the outbreak, which has directly affected the lives of people in the regions.