National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal has said that Pakistan will start conducting 50,000 coronavirus tests a day from next week as a meeting held at the National Command and Operations Centre has decided that virus detection kits would be provided to all departments concerned at the earliest.
Speaking to journalists, the NDMA chairman said that earlier only those who showed symptoms of the coronavirus were being tested, but the authorities are now shifting to randomised testing for effective implementation of the government’s plans to curb the menace of COVID-19 that has so far claimed 251 lives in Pakistan and left over 12,000 people sick across the country.
Lt Gen Afzal added that 800,000 testing kits were available and efforts were being made to procure more.
On April 11, the NDMA received a medical consignment from China consisting of 59 ventilators, about 936 kilogrammes (kg) of surgical masks, protective suits, safety lenses, thermometers, and 1,720 kg of unstitched cloth for surgical gowns, all of which were distributed among provinces.
Meanwhile, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has instructed the military to help civilian administration during the holy month of Ramzan that has arrived amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
“COAS held a special conference at General Headquarters (GHQ) today where the overview of the coronavirus deployment and situation was taken into account. COAS instructed all commanders to ensures border security and carry out routine activities as per schedule,” the military spokesperson said while addressing a press conference on Friday.
“The army chief gave the instruction to work with civil authorities to ease the difficulties being faced by the people during Ramzan,” he said.
