ISLAMABAD: As many as 250 more ventilators have been provided to hospitals across the country on Saturday to tackle rising COVID-19 cases, ARY NEWS reported quoting details provided by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC).
According to details provided by the top body dealing with COVID-19 situation in the country, the ventilators were provided to the provinces to improve their capacity to deal with the virus patients.
“72 ventilators have been provided to hospitals in Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore while 52 of them were given to health facilities in Peshawar and Abbottabad areas,” said the NCOC release.
It further said that life-support system was also provided to health facilities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and federal capital Islamabad.
“20 ventilators have also been provided to hospitals in Quetta,” it said.
The NCOC shared that 22,589 beds have been allocated for coronavirus patients across the country as currently 5,060 patients are being treated at the hospitals.
“All patients being treated at the hospitals are provided with the oxygen facility to improve their respiratory condition,” the top body said.
It is pertinent to mention here that Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Saturday said that coronavirus testing capacity has increased in Pakistan and the country now has the capacity to perform over 35,000 tests per day.
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While briefing media on the coronavirus situation in the country, Asad Umar said there are now 101 coronavirus testing laboratories across the country and Pakistan currently conducting over 22,000 tests per day.
“On 26th February when the first cases emerged there were only 8 laboratories capable of testing people in the country. Now, this number has increased to over 100, he said and added that the number of ventilators in the country has been increased in four months”, he added.
He said more than 1900 people have died due to coronavirus Pakistan in the last three months. Asad Umar further said that the government’s first and foremost priority is to slow the pace of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
