ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday donated 15 testing machines and 15,000 testing kits to Pakistan in fight against coronavirus.

A formal ceremony to handover the equipment to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was held in Islamabad.

Speaking on the occasion, WHO Representative Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala said that the world body had provided the equipment to support Pakistan’s efforts in preventing spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. He also lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan’s efforts to control the pandemic.

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NDMA Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said that there was no dearth of Personal Protection Equipment in the country as the government had achieved the capacity to fulfill country’s needs through local resources.

“At present, we are not importing a single piece of PPE, except N-95 masks and all we are buying from the local market,” he said. He said the authority had provided the required equipment to all the frontline doctors, nurses, and other officials working in 502 hospitals across the country. He said, “Now we are ready to supply 100,000 PPEs to all hospitals every week.”

Muhammad Afzal suggested to the provincial governments to go for the carpet testing for those localities, which they feared could have any Corona affected person, and NDMA would provide the required capability in this regard. He said at the moment 39 laboratories were functioning in the country, while they were working on 27 other such facilities to be made functional soon.

He said there were over 100 mobile laboratories, equipped with required machinery and could be sent to affected localities for screening and testing. “There are plans to have over 2,500 ventilators by end of this month,” he maintained.