The Sindh Coronavirus Emergency Fund Committee has sanctioned Rs466 million from the budget of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) for purchasing 168 ventilators for the health facilities of the province.
A meeting of the committee, which was held with Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah in the chair on Friday, also approved Rs237 million for the procurement of laboratory equipment, and other machinery and medical equipment.
The chief secretary, who heads the fund, informed the meeting that so far Rs1.5 billion had been spent out of a total of Rs3.61 billion collected for the fund. He said that the medical equipment was being purchased for the field isolation centres established at the Expo Centre and the PAF Museum in Karachi and at hospitals in other parts of the province.
Shah further said that the new ventilators would be installed at different government hospitals. He directed the health secretary to ensure the implementation of the decision, prepare a ventilator installation plan and share it with the NDMA and the PDMA.
He told the health secretary to establish coronavirus wards at the Sindh government's hospitals in Korangi, New Karachi, Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Nazimabad.
According to a decision taken during the meeting, the dental ward of the Dow Hospital would also be converted into a coronavirus ward. He reviewed the progress on upgrading the ICUs (intensive care units) and HDUs (high dependency units) at the public sector hospitals of province and inspections and audits of the medical equipment being delivered to hospitals.
The director general of the PDMA told the meeting that 100 ventilators, which had been previously ordered, would be received by June 25 this year.