Pakistan begins production of ventilators as virus cases surge
Minister says first home-made ventilators will be handed over to the national disaster management agency soon; PM heaps praise on his team for coming up with ‘smart lockdown’ idea
Pakistan’s minister for science and technology said the country has started producing locally designed ventilators, as authorities reported 83 more deaths from the coronavirus.
In a tweet, Fawad Chaudhry said the first home-made ventilators will be handed over to the national disaster management agency soon. The announcement comes days ater Pakistan said it was racing against time to arrange for 1,500 more ventilators as part of a contingency plan.
Currently, 1,503 ventilators are available at government hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
Pakistan on Sunday reported 4,072 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the total to 202,955 with 4,118 deaths.
Pakistan has witnessed a spike in new infections since last month, when Prime Minister Imran Khan lifted lockdown, saying it was necessary to save the economy.
Imran said his team was amongst the first to enforce smart lockdowns.
The prime minister took to Twiter on Sunday where he shared an article titled “Smart Lockdowns are the future in Europe,” stating that his team was amongst the first to enforce the measure.
“My team was amongst the first to enforce smart lockdowns. I am proud of it for helping me continue to navigate our country through the COVID-19 crisis. Inshaallah, from now onwards if we follow SOPS we will see off the worst of this crisis,” he tweeted.
The article said Germany, Italy and Portugal are beting on smaller, local shutdowns to prevent a new surge of coronavirus infections.
Pakistan imposed a smart lockdown almost two weeks ago when COVID-19 cases in the country almost surged to the 150,000-mark. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued a list of 20 cities identified as COVID-19 hotspots across the country where smart lockdowns were imposed.
Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that 2,179 patients of coronavirus were detected ater testing 9,244 samples while 26 more patients lost their lives liting the death toll to 1,269 in the province.
“We have controlled the death rate by spreading awareness among the people and trying to reduce it [death rate] further,” he said.
Shah said that currently 34,654 patients were under treatment, of them 33,110 in home isolation, 88 at Isolation Centres and 1,456 at different hospitals. Shah said that at present 655 patients were in critical condition, of them 94 have been shited onto the ventilators. He prayed for their early recovery. Overnight 1,079 patients recovered and returned to normal life, he said and added the number of patients recovered so far has reached to 44,523 that constituted 55.5 per cent recovery rate.
According to Shah, out of 2,179 new cases 1,406 detected from six districts of Karachi division. They include 555 East, 358 South, 171 Korangi, 138 Central, 109 West and 75 Malir. He said Sukkur has 86 new cases, Hyderabad 54, Ghotki 40, Khairpur 38, Jamshoro 26, Mirpurkhas 22, Thata 19, Larkana 17, Sanghar 14, Naushehroferoze 12, Matiari 12, Shikarpur 12, Shaheed Benazirabad nine, Umerkot eight, Dadu seven, Kashmore and Tando Allahyar three each, Badin and Kambar each and Jacobabad one.
The chief minister said that laboratories established at Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Gambat and Sehwan have also started testing from last one month. He added that LUMHS Hyderabad has a capacity of conducting 2,000 tests per day, Syed Abdullah Shah Institute Sehwan 100 test, CMC Larkana lab 100, Gambat Institute 300 and Ghulam Mohammad Maher Medical College, Sukkur 100 tests.
As many as 7,288 violations of health guidelines brought in to prevent the spread of coronavirus were reported across the country over the past 24 hours, according to the National Command and Operation Centre.
1,070 markets/shops were sealed in the previous 24 hours while 1,234 violations of the government-prescribed standard operating procedures (SOPS) were observed.
The NCOC said 16 violations of health guidelines were observed in Islamabad where 14 markets/ shops were sealed while two transporters were fined. 2,172 violations were reported in Punjab where 618 markets/shops were sealed while 816 transporters were fined, it said.