in garages hospitals intensive care
units for coronavirus patients are under
pressure there are only a handful of
dedicated ICU beds still free in a city
of 15 million people they're racing to
build new facilities and local officials
and doctors have been frustrated by the
central government's decision to lift
nearly all lockdown restrictions we have
not been able to manage our cases and we
have been diverting our cases to other
hospitals and these were shoppers in the
capital Islamabad shortly before the Eid
festival two weeks ago since then the
rate of new cases has increased the
government is now introducing fines for
those not socially distancing or wearing
masks but enforcement is likely to be
difficult Prime Minister Imran Khan
however has been clear with recorded
deaths comparatively low he believes
poverty is a greater threat in
coronavirus by loggers there are fifty
million people here who can't even
afford two meals a day he says if we
impose a lockdown like they did in Wuhan
or Europe what will happen to them
but critics say the government is
sending out mixed messages Watts
conspiracy theories are spreading a
number of hospitals have been attacked
by angry relatives as rumors circulate
medics are being paid by the World
Health Organization to wrongly declare
patients Kovac positive here a mob tried
to take a patient's dead body away
furious at the prospect of not being
able to hold a traditional funeral
insisting coronavirus is a hoax
tensions are aggravated by a lack of
resources I spoke to one doctor
aggressively confronted by a crowd of
relatives have a critically ill woman
who died with no ICU bed available she's
calling for security and increased
awareness health care workers face other
threats to at least 30 have died so far
from coronavirus doctors have warned of
a lack of protective equipment for some
staff and the dangers of undiagnosed
patients spreading the infection
officials insist that what certain
hospitals might be filling up there is
still plenty of capacity across the
country and equipment for staff has
improved but for now the number of new
cases looks set to continue rising
Secunda Kimani BBC news