Pandemic response: Medical equipment to reach Pakistan on Thursday, says health ministry

ISLAMABAD: A major shipment of clinical and diagnostic equipment to deal with the coronavirus pandemic is going to arrive in Pakistan on Thursday, a senior health official told Arab News.
“This procurement of medical equipment was done through UNICEF in coordination with the Ministry of Health. We have focused not only on clinical but also diagnostic equipment for our medical teams,” Malik Muhammad Safi, director general for health, told Arab News on Wednesday. He added that personal safety equipment such as N-95 masks and protective wear for medical workers have also been purchased.
The Ministry of Planning allocated $238 million from the World Bank for COVID-19 emergency response and to address the socio-economic disruption the outbreak has caused.
“This amount of $238 million from the World Bank is a soft loan and to be utilized through UNICEF,” Safi said.
“We have also ordered medical equipment like ventilators and testing lab kits. Once this consignment will be delivered to us by UNICEF, we will use it to establish 42 testing labs at each divisional headquarters of Pakistan,” he said, adding that the ministry has already established testing labs in Peshawar, Gilgit, Quetta, Taftan, Lahore, and Karachi.
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health (NIH) is developing locally made testing kits.
“We have acquired sufficient quantity of testing kits and NIH has sent 2,000 kits to Punjab and 1,000 to Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday. One kit can take around 96 tests. We have also procured another 2 million kits from China, which will arrive by the end of month,” Safi said.
The National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) granted $50 million to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday to deal with the health crisis.
“This funding is for six months duration with an objective to effectively respond to minimize impact of coronavirus, through surveillance strengthening, case management, infection prevention and protection of medical and para medical staff through provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other materials for COVID-19 response,” the NDMA said in a statement.
The World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and International Money Fund (IMF) have announced $14 billion, $6.5 billion and $50 billion respectively in initial packages to support companies and countries in their efforts to prevent, detect and respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19.