Wearing masks mandatory at public places; campaign starts across media, NCOC told

Islamabad: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Friday emphasised that individual and society at large be informed and educated through a robust public awareness campaign for mobilizing the masses on wearing face masks as mandatory in public places.

The NCOC meeting headed by Minister for Planning Development Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar discussed the current status of testing capacity of the country per million, stocks of ventilators available and its future demand and capacity building of the health care professionals to cope with the pandemic at different tiers.

Earlier, the NCOC was told that a special documentary on the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was successfully launched and telecast on all media channels.

Awareness and correct usage about PPE is very important for safety and well being of those who are fighting COVID-19 in the front lines.

Keeping in view this important aspect, the NCOC through a joint effort of health ministry & health experts had already prepared guidelines/ SOPs basing on world best practices about wearing of PPE by different health care workers and those connected with them at various places.

These guidelines/ SOPs had already been issued and reached to all concerned.
In order to benefit from this, a special documentary was prepared depicting various PPE equipment to be used by various people while performing their duties during COVID-19.

The documentary aims at visually aiding and help doctors, paramedics, health care workers and other staff to wear various PPE equipment during various procedures.

This documentary will not only help doctors for their safety but will also contribute towards judicious utilisation and avoidance of unnecessary use of PPE thus economizing resources. Major areas include inpatient facilities, outpatient facilities, community / social , Labs / sampling places.

Asad Umar said that in a short span of time, the government has been able to reach out to people through Ehsaas Programme, relief to industrial sector and powers bills payment for small and medium enterprises.

“Over Rs100 billion have been distributed to more than 8 million beneficiaries through Ehsaas Emergency Cash Relief,” he added.

Asad said Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar had prepared Rs 50 billion project to benefit 3.5 million Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Rs 50 billion for agricultural relief package for farmers and Rs 50 billion were allocated for the health sector.

He mentioned that around 100,000 health professionals would get trained through a special programme for training on PPE use and 5000 ICU workers were also getting specialized training.