Out of 21 confirmed coronavirus patients, 14 belong to Sindh, six to Gilgit-Baltistan and one from Balochistan while not a single corona case has so far been reported from Punjab.
Official sources told Business Recorder that out of 71 suspected coronavirus patients in Punjab, the tests of 66 patients were negative while the result of five other patients is awaited. Similarly, screening of 3,000 Chinese has been completed in Punjab while screening of around 4,000 pilgrims coming from Iran is also being conducted. Besides, quarantine facility has been set up for 800 patients in DG Khan and high dependency unit and isolation wards have been established in DHQ hospitals, the sources added.
Health professionals believe that the risks posed by the Covid-19 outbreak become clearer, the public health threat arising from the pandemic. In Pakistan, the government has the unenviable task of ensuring that its public health system, already under-resourced and overburdened, is urgently strengthened to tackle this rapidly expanding pandemic, they said.
Dr Mazhar Hussain, an expert on children healthcare solutions and viral diseases, urged the government to ensure adequate availability of diagnostics and effective screening, symptom-based screening, the method being employed at our airports, is simply not accurate enough to prevent spread of the virus. Further, properly validated tests from quality-assured sources need to be made available quickly and in sufficient quantities and utilized under a thought-out, responsive screening strategy, he added.
"Our screening strategy will need to evolve as case patterns emerge, but as a first step, ensuring the availability of quality diagnostics at scale must be a priority-a million tests for use in at-risk populations should be the target. Covid-19 is an RNA virus, and in such viruses, the quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) tests are the most accurate determinant of infection," he said.
About preventive measures, Dr Mazhar Hussain said: "While closing schools and businesses may not be warranted at this stage, social gatherings where people are in close proximity should be discouraged, and the importance of thorough hand washing must be repeatedly communicated."
To a query, he said: "The Ministry of National Health Services not only take urgent measures to clear its current pendency of drug registration, but adopt a new pathway to process fast-track approvals for vaccines and therapeutics for Covid-19 on the basis of approvals by any of the stringent regulatory authorities abroad, such as the FDA or the regulatory bodies of the EU, Australia or Japan."
Moreover, the Institute of Public Health (IPH) has announced to impart training to the teachers of educational institutions of Lahore as master trainers on prevention of coronavirus. Later, these master trainers will extend training to their colleagues to create awareness regarding preventive measures among the students. The education department, Lahore, will collaborate with IPH in this regard. The training for master trainers has been started from Thursday.
Dean IPH Prof Dr Zarfishan Tahir said that IPH will extend all out cooperation to the education department for dissemination awareness regarding preventive measures for Coronavirus among the students so that "Health Message" should reach every house through students.
Moreover, the Punjab government has declared a medical emergency after 20 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the country this week.
"All the departments have to work together with the health department," Punjab Health Minister Yasmeen Rashid said, while speaking to reporters in Lahore. "We need to take the coronavirus epidemic seriously; precautionary measures such as unnecessarily touching face, shaking hands should be avoided," she said, adding that precautionary measures will help in curbing the spread of the virus; if an emergency has been declared, people need to take the situation seriously. Public gatherings need to be avoided."
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