Following Sindh government’s claims that it was not provided any assistance by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the spokesperson the relief organisation said that the province has enough ventilators for its current number of coronavirus patients, a local news outlet reported on Sunday.
Sindh’s Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah’s had claimed that the NDMA did not set up any laboratory for coronavirus patients in the province or provided the provincial government with a single ventilator.
He had said that Sindh had 280 ventilators at present, while the provincial government had ordered 200 more on its own, half of which were to be delivered soon. He had urged the federal ministers to focus on serving people in distress instead of making ‘baseless allegations’ against the Sindh government.
Responding to the provincial minister’s criticism, the NDMA spokesperson said that while Sindh currently has enough ventilators for its current number of coronavirus patients, the relief organisaton had provided it with 20 additional by-pipe ventilators.
Providing a further breakdown, the spokesperson said that 130,163 face masks, 32,392 N95 face masks and 203,840 KN95 masks were sent to Sindh, adding that 235,479 safety suits; 8,733 safety goggles; 242,792 gloves and 57,844 pairs of shoe covers, 94,201 surgical caps, 25,351 gowns and 9,448 face shields were also distributed.
The NDMA spokesperson further stated that Sindh was provided with four PCR machines and testing equipment, including 123,832 testing kits, 55,000 viral transport media (VTM) kits and 55,000 swab kits, and 50,768 manuals and 8,000 auto-extraction kits were also included in the equipment.
“The NDMA distributed two biosafety cabinets for storing the testing kits, 200 thermal guns, 30,000 biotech tubes, 9,000 bio-hazard bags, 1,020 body bags and 25,000 sanitiser bottles to Sindh. The fifth consignment of goods includes 2,822 N95 masks, 3,136 D95 ICU masks and 48,384 K95 masks for Sindh. In addition, 4,480 gowns, 4,256 surgical caps, 8,960 face shields, 16,890 pairs of gloves, 6,272 protective goggles and 6,275 bottles of sanitizers will also be distributed,” the spokesperson added.
The NDMA spokesperson also said that the relief organisation has around 500 ventilators in its warehouse which are a strategic reserve and will be handed over to provinces as per their needs. NDMA provides relief to all provinces, including to the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the spokesperson added.
