The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in more than 62 million confirmed cases and over 1.4 million deaths globally, a case fatality rate (CFR) of approximately 5.4% and an infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.9% (Johns Hopkins University, 2020; Rekatsina et al., 2020). As the world rushed to respond to the global health crisis, the pandemic revealed numerous cracks in healthcare systems (Armocida et al., 2020). Pakistan was one of the first low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to be affected by the pandemic, and had reported 398,024 cases and 8025 deaths (CFR 2.51%) at the time of writing (Government of Pakistan, 2020; Johns Hopkins University, 2020).
