Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Sunday expressed fear that the coronavirus cases can surge to 1.2 million by the end of July if strict action was not taken against the violators of standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the government to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“By the middle of June, we have around 150,000 cases and if such situation prevails and no change is made then according to the experts, the number can increase by two folds to 300,000 by the end of current month and further surge to around one million to 1.2 million by the next month end,” Asad Umar said in a media briefing after chairing a meeting of the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) here. “This is of course a matter of worry but the good thing is that we have the capability to avoid such situation by taking administrative actions,” he added.
He said the administrative measures have already been taken against the violators of SOPs, however the NCOC has decided to take stricter action against such people. The government does not want to hurt the people, but it is its constitutional as well as moral responsibility to prevent them from spreading the disease, he added.
The minister said the capacity of health system is being improved. The NCOC has taken the decision to increase the Covid-19 testing capacity from current 40,000-50,000 daily to around 150,000 tests within four to six weeks, meaning that around 100,000 people would be tested on daily basis by mid-July.
About the availability of beds with oxygen for the coronavirus patients, Umar said at present around 2,000 patients were on oxygen beds across the country. Keeping in view the growing numbers of patients, the federal government will provide 1,000 more beds by the end of current month and 1,000 beds next month. “We will provide 500 beds each to the Sindh and Punjab provinces, 450 to Islamabad, 400 bed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 200 bed to Balochistan, 60 to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 40 to Gilgit Baltistan,” he added.
Asad Umar said according to the experts, wearing masks is the most effective way to control the pandemic as it could even help decrease the spread rate by 50 percent. He said social distancing is the second most important requirement the people should follow. It has repeatedly been advised that the people should avoid going out of home unnecessarily, and if it was unavoidable, then they should observe social distancing whether they are in a market, at an office or anywhere else.
He said the government wants to save majority of people of from the disease, warning that stricter action will be taken against those who do not follow the SOPs, particularly shops, and even markets will be locked in such cases. He said in Islamabad, the government has sealed some areas and similar actions will also be taken in Lahore and other cities of Punjab.
Asad Umar said according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government is also concerned about the economic situation of the common man. Pakistan managed to do something for the poor due to timely actions by the prime minister, however the situation in other countries like India is the worst. India imposed a strict lockdown on a short notice causing the worst situation where people are dying of hunger and pandemic which continues spreading.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan has developed indigenous Covid-19 diagnostic kits that have been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for commercial use and is likely to bring down the cost of coronavirus tests in the country. “We were mostly importing Covid-19 test kits from China. Now our scientists have developed our own polymerase chain reaction equipment,” he said, adding that the kit has been developed by experts at the National University of Science and Technology with more than 90 percent accuracy which is 20 percent better than the imported kits. “It is a totally domestic kit and will help us reduce our import bill,” he said. “Likewise, it will bring down the cost of Covid-19 tests to one third of what it is,” he added.
The minister also sounded hopeful about developing domestic ventilators within the next few weeks since clinical trials of four machines have already entered their final phase. “Once these trials are over, we will ask commercial entities to start manufacturing these ventilators. I hope we will be able to produce more than 100 ventilators in the first three months,” he said.
