Pakistan receives protective equipment from China

Islamabad: Pakistan received the sixth consignment of protective equipment from China at the Islamabad airport on Tuesday.

National Disaster Management Authority Chairperson Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal was present at the airport when the plane arrived. The supplies included 150,000 N-95 masks and 1.5 million surgical masks.

Speaking to media with a Chinese envoy, the NDMA chairperson assured that the authority will review the coronavirus situation in Karachi and Peshawar soon and import more than 2,000 beds before July 15.

Each of these beds will have an oxygen supply, which the lieutenant general said, is more important than a ventilator at the moment.

About Pakistan’s testing capacity, he said all facilities have been provided to the provinces and they can test as many people as they want to.

“We can test more than 100,000 people every day. I suggest provinces conduct tests in multiple shifts throughout the day to test a large number of people,” he told the media.

General Afzal also thanked China for its continuous support in the battle against the virus.

So far, Pakistan has reported 2,839 COVID-19 fatalities and nearly 149,000 infections. The cases, as the experts suggest, are likely to surge till July.