The growing challenges of covid-19 for frontline workers in health facilities of Pakistan

The declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, marked a life-changing disaster. In one-year people have started living a new normal, however, healthcare setups are still struggling to fight against coronavirus. On 26 Feb 2020, Pakistan confirmed its first case of the coronavirus when a student tested positive upon returning from Iran. As of 14 March 2021, there are over 602,000 COVID-19 cases, and almost 13,500 deaths have been confirmed [1]. Noncompliance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) followed by the lack of resources in public hospitals, is making the situation worse. Private hospitals are far better at providing quality care, but in the present time, even they have reached the maximum of their capacities in accommodating patients suffering from COVID-19. It is not novel to hear about the absenteeism in and shortage of frontline workers particularly nurses because of increasing workload and deficiency of resources for decades [2]. However, the increased influx of patients suffering from COVID-19 especially in the tertiary care setups has put a huge burden on the healthcare system across Pakistan. While frontline workers are more focused on managing and caring for patients with COVID-19, their burnout and deteriorating health have completely been overlooked.