–Sindh health minister says cases increasing in northern Sindh, while southern parts showing downward trend
ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) was informed on Saturday that the Punjab government has developed a mobile application to indicate bed occupancy and availability of ventilators in hospitals across the province.
The application would help the officials of Rescue 1122 track the beds and ventilators’ availability in every district of the province, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid apprised the meeting chaired by Minister for Planning Asad Umar.
Accordingly, she said, the Rescue 1122 and provincial health department staff were being provided necessary training.
Asad Umar appreciated the Punjab government for taking a lead in developing an application to keep the health officials updated in real-time. He directed the other federating units to replicate the initiative for effective handling those COVID-19 positive patients who had been home-quarantined.
The meeting was also given a practical demonstration of the application.
Briefing the NCOC about smart lockdown mechanism in Punjab, Dr Yasmin said that the province was all set to issue detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in that regard.
All-out efforts would be made to enforce the smart lockdown across the province, she added. The health minister said that Punjab had increased its testing capacity and would run extensive awareness drive on SOPs to communicate the guidelines to the citizens. A notification for home quarantine of the corona-positive patients would be issued shortly, she added.
Sindh Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuho said that the virus spread in central and northern Sindh had been increasing gradually, whereas the number of cases was showing a downward trend in the southern part of the province.
She said that at least 22 areas had been under lockdown in Karachi which had emerged as a virus hotspot in Sindh, adding the virus was being transmitted to other districts due to the inter-city travel.
The representatives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit Baltistan also apprised the NCOC about their strategies in enforcing the smart lockdowns in their respective areas.
The meeting was also informed that the Rural Support Programme had been activated in the federal capital to enhance community mobilization against the COVID-19. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) also shared its plan for the procurement of critical equipment.
The meeting was also attended by National Coordinator Lt Gen Hamooduz Zaman, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf.
