Following the deaths of at least seven COVID-19 patients died due to a shortage of oxygen supply, several officials at a hospital in Peshawar city in Pakistan have been suspended.

Farhad Khan, spokesman at Khyber Teaching Hospital, said that the patients died on Saturday night when the medical oxygen was not delivered to the hospital on time. He added that a disruption in the oxygen supplies had affected some 200 patients, about half of whom were infected with the coronavirus. Al Jazeera reports that there had been no backup oxygen supply at the hospital.

According to Al Jazeera, the director of the hospital was included among those suspended with immediate effect. A preliminary report read that the oxygen shortage had gone “unnoticed, unsupervised and unchecked.”

Taimur Saleem Jhagra, a provincial health minister, is to hold a detailed inquiry over the next five days, reportedly the second one. Jhagra questioned why the matter had only been addressed after 12pm when the low oxygen issue had been evident from around 8pm. He said, “Some of the staff were off, some were absent and there wasn’t any alternate arrangements, even the emergency squad was not available.”

More than 400 000 coronavirus cases have been reported in Pakistan, and intensive care units in hospitals across the country have now been filled almost to capacity.

Umm Muhammed Umar