- 773 coronavirus patients to recover soon: Dr. Zafar Mirza
- Moeed rebuts rumours about flights resumption from April 5
SLAMABAD, March 30: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has expressed optimism that number of persons recovering from coronavirus in the country will increase in the coming days.
Giving a media briefing along with Special Assistant on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yusuf and Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal here on Monday, he said that confirmed cases reported in Pakistan during the past 24 hours are 99, which are lesser than the cases reported in preceding 24 hours.
Dr Mirza said that so far the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 21 lives, with five deaths reported within the last 24 hours. “In the coming days, there will be an increase in the number of recovered people,” he hoped.
Dr Mirza said that currently, 7,507 people are placed under quarantine in different places across the country.
“In hospitals, out of 783 cases, 773 are improving and expected to get well soon,” said the SAPM. “Only 10 patients are in a critical condition,” he continued.
Addressing the press conference, the NDMA chairman said that seven machines in cooperation with National Institute of Health (NIH) have been provided to various hospitals of the country. He said testing facilities will soon be available in Gujrat and Bahawalpur while evaluation of laboratories in Sargodha is being carried out.
He said Sindh government was given 20,000 testing kits while Punjab was provided 5,000 kits on Monday.
He said four to five flights will go to China in a few days to pick up ventilators, personal protection equipment (PPE) and other essential medical supplies.
He said that the government’s priority is to provide medical teams with adequate supplies so that they can freely dispense their services to the ailing.
The NDMA chairman further said that the officials are aiming to increase testing capacity in Pakistan, adding that the flight from Beijing also brought 100 walkthrough and thermal scanning machines. He said that until April 6, around 100,000 protective kits will be in the country, along with 1,100 to 1,500 ventilators.
Special Assistant on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yusuf said the government is working on various options regarding transportation in the country. However, no decision up till now has been made on restarting passenger operation of Pakistan Railways.
He said airports will be gradually reopened next month after taking into view all outcomes.
“All the passengers have returned from Thailand and they are all clear,” said the SAPM, referring to an earlier flight assigned to bring back stranded Pakistanis from the Bangkok airport. He said all other Pakistanis have been brought back or their visas have been arranged with the host governments.
Dismissing rumours about the airports resuming operations from April 5, he said that the matter of resumption of air operations is under consideration, however, nothing is conclusive as of now. He further said that domestic flights have been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, and will remain so. -TLTP
