KARACHI                  -           The federal government has become a stumbling block in importing the COVID-19 kits, Sindh government officials said on Friday. The Sindh government is facing a severe shortage of testing kits and has decided to import them from the United Kingdom and China. However, sources in the provincial government said that federal government authorities are giving a ‘lukewarm’ response to the request. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman said that the federal government needs to be proactive about the medical crisis and not just make announcements.

“All provinces need a huge ramping up of testing capacity, not next month but now, and all we are seeing is a constant series of press statements about what Sindh has been given,” Rehman said adding that officials in the centre are not coordinating with the provinces in the time-sensitive matter of testing the deadly contagion. She further added that there’s an imminent danger to Pakistan right now and the response has to be coordinated and fast.

“Without enough test kits, we will face a terrible crisis. Right now no functional test kits have been provided to Sindh as per federal announcements,” Rehman said in a tweet. “No cargo flights to pick up orders from export destinations. Federal govt [government] please coordinate import of kit with provinces.”“Sindh government has decided to import 2 lakh kits, but it depends on federal government help to provide cargo facility to get it,” she said