ISLAMABAD - Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services (NHS) Dr Zafar Mirza on Wednesday said that the government received 500,000 N-95 masks from China for medical professionals.
SAPM Dr Zafar Mirza in his online briefing on COVID-19 situation also said that 500,000 N-N95 masks were collected by the government while another consignment carrying 12 tons of Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs) will also reach after two days.
Updating about the number of cases he said that 1022 people have been confirmed with COVID-19.
He said that the virus has the different pattern in Pakistan compared to other countries as 24 percent of infected patients are aged between 21 to 30 years. Dr Zafar Mirza also said that 64 percent infected patients are male while 36 percent are females.
SAPM also said that the local transmission of the virus in people is 7 percent while 93 percent cases were imported. He also informed that 5025 people were quarantined in different centers in which 23 percent were found positive with the virus.
Meanwhile, all 148 passengers brought from Doha after the air restrictions were tested and their tests were found negative.
Dr. Mirza also said that it has been also decided that a parliamentary committee will be formed comprising the Member Parliaments (MPs) to oversee the COVID-19 situation. All political parties are on same page in coping with COVID-19 situation, he added
The meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NNC) will be held today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister (PM) to review the implementation of the decisions of National Security Committee (NCC).
He said that the meeting will also review the situation emerged after the lock down decisions implemented by Sindh and Punjab.
With fifty more novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in one day the tally of confirmed cases in country on Wednesday reached above one thousand.
According to the official COVID-19 dashboard the number of confirm cases reported in different regions of the country were 1022.
The official figures also said that one death was reported in last 24 hours while 21 patients of COVID-19 have been recovered so far and five are still critical.
The number of patients increased in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) where five new cases were reported in a day taking the tally to 20. Meanwhile, numbers of patients in Sindh were 413, Punjab 310, Baluchistan 117, Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP) 80, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 81 and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) one.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) Daily Situation Report (DSR) said that fourteen patients were recovered and discharged from Sindh, 2 from Punjab and 2 from ICT.
About the provinces’ preparedness and response, the NIH DSR said that in Baluchistan 1,000 N95 dispatched for Taftan with other necessary PPEs to quarantined populations while in Punjab 2 new BSL-3 labs set up in the province, bringing the total number of BSL-3 labs to 4.
It also said that in KP 9 ventilators were received by Department of Health, KP and distributed to Bannu, Mufti Mehmood Hospital DI Khan, and Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. It also said that in GB two red zones were announced.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) report on Pakistan said that currently, the province of Sindh has the capacity of running 1200 tests per day in different designated Labs which is increased from 180 tests/day
It said that 235 new suspected cases of COVID-19 reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and total 612 persons are quarantined in 05 districts of KP.
The report also said that the KMU and WHO team visited the affected area (Village Manga) and conducted interviews with the contacts of the recent COVID-19 positive cases and collected 59 Nasopharyngeal swabs from close contacts.
