ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft, carrying medical relief goods donated by China, reached Islamabad on Saturday.
Speaking at the Islamabad International Airport, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal said this relief equipment is a donation from the Pakistani community in China.
The NDMA chief said Pakistan currently has the ability to conduct about 40,000 tests a day adding that 27 laboratories are fully functional and are working round-the-clock.
He further said there was no shortage of testing kits and machines required to contain COVID-19. Gen Afzal added that the medical equipment imported from China would be provided to all of the provinces.
“NDMA has started supplying the medical equipment to the provinces on its own with the assistance of the Pakistan Army,” he said.
Gen Afzal said the doctors and paramedics were the frontline soldiers of the country in its fight against COVID-19, adding, “We assure our doctors and medical staff that they will not be left alone in this fight.”
He mentioned that in order to further improve the capacity of testing laboratories every lab would have 2-3 bio-labs.
He informed that all sorts of hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had received medical equipment whereas hospitals in Punjab would receive personal protective equipment (PPE) kits tomorrow (on Sunday) as the medical goods were being released.
“The consignment has been prepared for Sindh and would be sent soon.” However, the medical goods and equipment imported from China was brought through PIA’s 777 aircraft from Chengdu comprising 22 tonnes of supplies.
The equipment reached included 59 ventilators and 936 kilograms of surgical masks. It also had protective gowns along with 1720kg of cloth used in preparing masks and gowns.
There were also gloves and ready-made protective suits. Thermometers and safety glasses were also included in the equipment.
In a related development, the NDMA received the first supply of Asian Development Bank-funded emergency medical equipment to battle the epidemic.
The consignment will be distributed to medical centers nationwide.
Responding to Pakistan’s emergency assistance requests, ADB re-purposed $50 million from Pakistan’s National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) to procure the required supplies.
