'Big medical/electromagnetic industry': US will be Pakistan's client, says Fawad

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said Pakistan will have its own "big medical/electromagnetic industry" in the next three years and the United States will be its client.

"We are already exporting sanitizers and PPEs (Personal Protection Equipments) to USA (United States of America), USA gesture of friendship is appreciated, however in next three years Pakistan will have its own big medical/ electromagnetic industry and I have no doubts that USA will be our major client..." he said in a tweet.

Earlier on June 28, the minister said in a video statement that Pakistan has joined the ranks of those few countries which are producing their own ventilators. The first batch of ventilators manufactured in Pakistan will be delivered to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in the coming week, he said.

The development takes place at a time when coronavirus has unleashed devastation across Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB).

According to official data, there were 228,474 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Pakistan by Sunday evening including 2,419 critical cases and 4,712 deaths. As many as 3,191 fresh Covid-19 cases surfaced in the last 24 hours (till Sunday evening) and 93 deaths were recorded in 24 hours. Some 129,830 patients have recovered from this pandemic, so far.

Highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases was recorded in Sindh with 92,306 cases, followed by 81,317 cases in Punjab, 27,843 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 13,409 cases in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 10,766 cases in Balochistan, 1,545 cases in GB and 1,288 confirmed coronavirus cases were recorded in AJK till Sunday evening.