First death in Pakistan due to Covid-19 re-infection reported

Due to ‘COVID-19 re-infection’, the first death has been reported in Pakistan. A senior leader of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Rashid Rabbani died due to complications of coronavirus infection at the Ziauddin Hospital Karachi on Thursday.

“Rashid Rabbani, 68, was brought to the Dr. Ziauddin Hospital with COVID-19 re-infection last week and his condition was very serious. They thought of shifting him to the ventilator but unfortunately, his condition continued to become worse and he passed away today evening,” said Dr. Asim Hussain, Chairman of the Dr. Ziauddin Hospitals.

Some major health facilities in Karachi including Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) and Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) said they have received cases of COVID-19 re-infection. But added that so far no death had occurred among those who faced the infection twice in their lives.

But the Chairman of Dr. Ziauddin Hospitals Dr. Asim Hussain claimed that Rashid Rabbani first contracted the Coronavirus infection in May this year. But he had no symptoms of disease despite getting COVID-19 positive through a PCR test. He added that the second infection proved very severe for him and he died due to serious complications of the disease.

To a query, Dr. Asim Hussain claimed that although COVID-19 cases were rising gradually in Pakistan, they were getting very serious and complicated cases of the infection. Most of the cases required intensive care and even ventilator support.

Waqar Mehdi:

Another senior PPP leader, Waqar Mehdi also confirmed that Rabbani had first tested positive for COVID-19 on in May. He said “In May this year, Rashid Rabbani got himself tested from AKUH lab. The report said he had contracted the disease. He had no symptoms or had mild symptoms. After six or seven days, he got himself tested again and the same lab declared him negative”.

“Last week Rashid got sick again and when his condition declined and he started gasping. At Dr. Ziauddin Hospital his COVID-19 test came positive again. This time his lungs were badly damaged due to re-infection. After remaining at least six days on a ventilator, he passed away today”, Mehdi said.

Re-infection of Coronavirus:

“Re-infection with Coronavirus is very much possible and now the world is reporting COVID-19 re-infections again. We are also having such cases at AKUH,” Dr. Faisal Mahmood specialist at AKUH said. He also added that presence of COVID-19 antibodies in blood of a person does not guarantee that he or she would not get infection again.

A senior official at the Dow University hospital in Karachi said he had also personally seen three to four cases of the COVID-19’s re-infection at DUHS, saying these patients had severe symptoms of the disease to the hospital.

Asad Umar:

Even the Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar conceded that COVID-19 cases were rising throughout the country, including Karachi. He said, “National positivity of Covid cases was 2.37 percent. This is the highest positivity rate in more than 50 days. The last time we saw this level on August 23.”

In his tweets on Wednesday morning, Umar also highlighted an increase in virus deaths, saying. “The average number of Covid deaths during the first four days of this week was 11 per day, the highest since the week of August 10. Unmistakable signs of the rise of corona.”