Corona Virus Disease-2019 or COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease caused by a variant of the Coronavirus family. This disease has surfaced from Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has spread to more than two hundred countries and territories in World infecting millions of people around the globe. Pakistan is among top 30 countries, which are severely hit by this pandemic. The numbers of infected cases are increasing at rapid pace. To counteract the rapid spread of this contagion, Government of Pakistan has imposed a partial lockdown in the country since 23rd March 2020. Healthcare services are one of the essential services, which are working at its plausible capacity even under these restrictions. Nuclear medicine being a part of healthcare services has to rapidly embrace the shifting paradigms of patient care. New guidelines and standard operating procedures need to be developed to continue essential nuclear medicine services to prevent spread of this highly transmittable infection among staff and patients. These recommendations and guidelines should be safe, reasonably practical, and in line with the international, national, and hospital policies to combat COVID-19. This article offers a few suggestions and recommendations for efficient and safe delivery of nuclear medicine services.
Key words: COVID-19, Nuclear Medicine, Recommendations, Pakistan
|
