Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid while inaugurating the Bio-Safety Level-3 Laboratory at the Institute of Public Health here on Wednesday expressed the hope that Pakistan will soon be able to overcome spread of coronavirus.
Present on the occasion were World Health Organisation Country Chief Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool, Dean IPH Dr Zarfishan Tahir, Professor Suhail Chughtai and Members Board of Management.
The Minister took a round of the lab and said, "I greatly appreciate the IPH team especially Dr Zarfishan Tahir for putting up great efforts and making the lab functional. The government is trying to scale up the testing capabilities and all institutions must play their role. The IPH is in the frontline in this battle. According to guidelines of the WHO, we are increasing testing capacity in Punjab. In the current month, many BSL-3 laboratories have been made functional in districts." She further said, "In Punjab the highest number of Covid-19 patients is in Lahore. Our quarantine centres can house 28,000 patients. As soon as the pandemic reached here, we immediately opened Corona centres at Expo Centre, PKLI and Mayo Hospital. Ganga Ram has been reserved for pregnant mothers suffering from Corona. The facilities in the hospitals have been enhanced to deal with the pandemic. Lockdown was enforced to stop the transmission of the virus. The people are requested to stay at homes and restrict movement. Timely steps helped us control the disease which is why we have less mortality rate. Over 90 percent of patients losing their lives are in the above 50 age group. We also are grateful to the WHO for their support."
The Minister said that smart sampling was being initiated in Punjab which would help assess the prevalence and its stage and scale. She hoped Pakistan would soon be able to control the spread of the disease. Dr Zarfishan said the lab was made functional within just 10 days and it had a capacity to perform 200 tests per day currently which could be scaled up to 1,000.
Former Governor Punjab Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool (Retd) praised Dr Yasmin Rashid for working with dedication on frontline on corona pandemic.
Moreover, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid received Personal Protective Equipment for health professionals from the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) at the Fatima Jinnah Medical University.
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