World Health Organization (WHO) has donated fifteen testing machines and fifteen thousand testing kits to Pakistan in fight against COVID-19.

A formal ceremony to handover this equipment to National Disaster Management was held in Islamabad on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, WHO Representative Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala said that the world body has provided this equipment to support Pakistan's efforts in preventing spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. He also lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan's efforts to control the pandemic.

NDMA Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said that there is no dearth of Personal Protection Equipment in the country as we have achieved the capacity to fulfill country's needs through local resources. He said at present we are not importing a single piece of PPE, except N-95 masks and all we are buying from the local market. He said we have provided the required equipment to all the frontline doctors, nurses, and other officials working in 502 hospitals across country. He said now we are ready to supply 100,000 PPEs to all hospitals every week.

Muhammad Afzal suggested to the provincial governments to go for the carpet testing for those localities, which they fear can have any Corona affected person, and NDMA will provide the required capability in this regard. He said at the moment 39 laboratories are functioning in the country, while we are working on 27 other such facilities to be made functional soon.

He said there are over 100 mobile laboratories, equipped with required machinery and can be sent to affected localities for screening and testing. He said there are plans to have over 2,500 ventilators by end of this month.

Akram/Asmaa