ISLAMABAD: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal has said the country has witnessed a significant reduction in coronavirus cases and the authorities have taken the best measures to counter the pandemic.
He said this, while receiving a donation of 100 ventilators from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Afzal also thanked the USAID for its cooperation with Pakistan against the Covid-19. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Paul W Johns, handed over the ventilators to the Lt Gen Afzal.
He further added that the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) and the NDMA had played an important role to counter the pandemic.
"We are aware of the coronavirus challenges that Pakistan is facing," Afzal affirmed. The NDMA chairman said Pakistan had significantly increased its Covid-19 testing capacity to 100,000 tests per day, besides upgrading 148 laboratories to conduct PCR tests for overcoming the pandemic.
He said the US had donated 100 ventilators last month and the combined worth of 200 units was $3 million. It also included the package of training to doctor and paramedics.
"I'm pleased to receive the ventilators, which are a symbol of friendship with the US."
The 100 ventilators given earlier by the US had been distributed among hospitals across the country, especially those which did not have the facility of vents in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
"We have increased bed capacity, including oxygenated beds and ventilators in hospitals across the country, besides establishing quarantine and isolation facility for the Covid-19 patients," he said.
The NDMA, he added, had also helped upgrade the national health system to successfully handle the additional case loads of Covid-19 patients. The authority had supported the industry to locally manufacture medical equipment, and supplies to supplement government's efforts, he said. Afzal said the NDMA facilitated building the 250-bed Infectious Diseases Treatment Centre in Islamabad in about 100 days, which would be operational soon. "These efforts have resulted in successfully containing the spread of Covid-19 in the country," he added.
The NDMA chairman thanked US Ambassador Paul W Johns and the head of USAID in Pakistan Ms Julie for making possible the support. The US ambassador said both the governments had already expressed their firm resolve to jointly combat the menace. "This is the second tranche of 100 ventilators. The first consignment had been handed over to NDMA in Karachi last month. Pakistani doctors and healthcare workers would also be provided training facilities."
He said the US was also helping to upgrade provincial emergency operation centres. The two countries would defeat the pandemic with joint efforts.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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