The Outbreak of COVID-19, Financial Vulnerabilities, and Safeguarding Healthcare Infrastructure Management in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the vulnerabilities raised by COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan’s healthcare infrastructure and the measures taken by Pakistan to control and contain the spread of this infectious disease especially the prevailing second wave of COVID-19. In emerging economies like Pakistan, the impact of this pandemic is even higher due to existing inefficient and defective healthcare infrastructure. Furthermore, due to breach of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and lockdown measures, the promptly increasing new infections caused an overload on the healthcare providers. The prevailing situation is also raising apprehensions about the competence of the government to address the infection and fatality rate in healthcare providers, for instance, as of 27 January 2021, 13,655 confirmed positive cases and 132 deaths were reported amongsthealth professionals. This pandemic could bring more devastation in terms of fatalities; therefore, Pakistan must ensure utmost protection measures for the health professionals. To fight this pandemic in an efficient manner, investing in the persistently underfunded healthcare infrastructure is indispensable.