KARACHI: An inquiry committee has been formed to investigate death of a retired doctor because of coronavirus after various hospitals denied him treatment in Karachi.

A notification has been issued regarding formulation of the committee. Sindh Government Spokesperson Dr Murtaza Wahab said that the committee would submit the inquiry report in 24 hours.

Talking to a private TV channel, Pakistan Peoples Party leader Naz Baloch has declared the tragic incident unjustifiable. “A human life is lost, you cannot give justification for it,” she said.

Also Read: COVID-19: Retired doctor dies ‘after being denied treatment’

While, the Sindh government spokesperson has claimed that ventilators were available at the hospitals which had denied the doctor treatment. He said the provincial government hospitals had 48 beds at intensive care units. He was referred to three hospitals, however he did not agree to go there, Murtaza Wahab claimed.

Contrary to statement of wife of the deceased, the spokesperson of health department said ambulance had arrived on time at the house of doctor Furqan. He blamed the doctor for not going on ambulance. Wife of the doctor had said that they visited three hospitals and none of them accepted him, while the ambulance service was also not cooperating with them.

Talking about availability of ventilators, the chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said one-third beds were vacant in Karachi’s ICUs. He said total number of ventilators in Sindh was 913 and only public hospitals had 835 ventilators. He said 160 patients in Karachi and 17 in rest of the province were on ventilator.