Pakistan to increase COVID-19 testing capacity to 20,000 till April end: Nausheen Hamid
Pakistan to increase COVID-19 testing capacity to 20,000 till April end: Nausheen Hamid
ISLAMABAD (APP) - Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr. Nausheen Hamid on Monday said the government was striving hard to increase the testing capacity of suspected cases of coronavirus to 20,000 per day from the end of April as currently 34 testing laboratories were fully functional in the country.
Talking to PTV news channel, Dr Nausheen Hamid said federal government was providing assistance to all provinces on equal basis and the government was trying to ensure availability of protective and testing kits throughout the country without any interruption.
Ministry of Health in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is devising policy to ensure establishment of diagnostic labs at division level, she added.
At present there is no shortage of essential tools to cope with the COVID-19 in the country, she said adding, more than one hundred thousand testing kits are now available which would be increased in coming days.
She explained that few weeks back, Pakistan had no capacity to deal with the challenge of this virus but within a very short span of time we have improve our capacity and capabilities to fight against it.
The shortage of protecting gears for paramedical staff weas also addressed, she mentioned.
To fulfill the need of ventilators government of Pakistan also discussed with local manufacturing Industries to manufacture its local ventilators and they would start manufacturing of ventilators indigenously at our own after its trail phases.
Within weeks the local manufactured ventilators would be functional, she added.
The government was also trying to ensure availability of protective and testing kits throughout the country and NDMA is now directly sending these protective gears to all hospitals of provinces, she said.
People should follow guideline regarding social distancing, stay home and stay strong. Pakistan would be among the first few countries to get rid of this pandemic, she added.
Nausheen Hamid said Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally visiting provinces and monitoring the situation and the way he is visiting different cities to view isolation and quarantine centers is appreciable.
