LAHORE:Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said the government is keeping a vigilant eye on the emerging economic conditions in the wake of the pandemic and the decision of ease or strictness of restrictions in different areas was made on the basis of daily reports.
He stated this during a media briefing in the committee room of the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. Replying to the questions of the media men, the chief minister stated that BSL level-III labs will be made functional at the divisional level very soon. These labs are near to completion in Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Rawalpindi and Rs620 million have been released, he added. He declared the capacity of conducting Coronavirus tests would be enhanced to 5,000 daily within the next two weeks and added that field hospitals were soon being made functional in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat and Jhelum. He mentioned that meeting with the Chinese doctors remained fruitful and they advised that social distancing was the best safety from Coronavirus.
The CM pronounced that Rs12,000 each would be given to 2.5 million deserving people under Insaf Imdad Package and Ehsaas Programme. The compulsion of distribution through PDMA has been imposed to ensure that financial aid was provided to every deserving person and the philanthropists should contact the PDMA for this purpose, he explained. He informed that packets containing necessary material were distributed in 25,000 needy families in the provincial metropolis adding that relief goods would be distributed in Lahore in collaboration with DC office and NGOs. The government is keeping a vigilant eye on the emerging economic conditions in the wake of the pandemic and the decision of ease or strictness of restrictions in different areas was made on the basis of daily reports, he replied.
To another question, he told that affected doctors in DG Khan would be fully taken care of adding that hoarders would not be pardoned. Fines worth more than Rs2 billion have been imposed for hoarding and price hike and deputy commissioners and administration officials are fully active in the province, he concluded.
Secretary Primary & Secondary Healthcare briefed that close associates of corona patients were also being traced while the total number of corona patients in the province was 1684. Of the 2,110 traced citizens, 147 had been tested positive. There are 8,000 diagnostic kits and more will also be provided, he added.
test lab: Usman Buzdar Monday visited the Central PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Lab, set up by the Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) at Birdwood Road for Coronavirus tests.
He inspected various sections of the biggest bio-safety level-III lab of the province while wearing the personal protective equipment (PPE) and asked the staff about the test procedure. He appreciated the laboratory establishment and commended the services being rendered by the department.
Secretary P&SHD Muhammad Usman briefed the CM about the test procedure. He said that biologists were working day and night at the lab. The Coronavirus test samples were sent to the lab through cold chain transport system and results were sent back to the relevant hospital within 6 to 7 hours. He said that more than 3,000 Coronavirus tests had been conducted, adding that 2,000 tests would be conducted in the lab daily after its expansion. Meanwhile, more than 3,100 tests were being conducted across Punjab daily, he added. Provincial Health Ministers Dr Yasmin Rashid, Punjab Information & Culture Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, Secretary Information and others were present outside the lab.