Research for Covid-19's cure under way: 1,000-bed field hospital kicks off in Lahore

A 1,000-bed makeshift field hospital established here at the Expo Centre in just nine days has become functional, and Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Wednesday visited the hospital and reviewed facilities available there.
The CM lauded the performance of Rescue 1122, district administration and health department for making functional the 1,000-bed hospital in a short period of only nine days.
He hoped that this facility would ease burden on other health facilities in the city, besides providing medical care to the coronavirus patients.
Talking to media, the CM said the hospital had all essential services, including three-time food provision daily, for the patients in isolation.
To a query, he stated that Raiwind has been quarantined due to surfacing of the coronavirus cases.
The CM said that wheat would be procured at Rs1,400 per maund and the restriction of "Gardaweri" has been done away with.
Similarly, the government has issued SOPs for wheat procurement centres and wheat would be purchased on "first come, first served" basis, he added.
He said that the Chief Minister Insaf Imdad Programme had been started from Wednesday to facilitate the daily-wage workers, and the people would receive financial aid from Thursday (today).
He said the government had adopted a very transparent and fast procedure to provide financial aid which was unique in the history of the province.
He added that Rs10 billion had been allocated to provide financial aid worth Rs4,000 each to needy impecunious families through online facility.
The antecedents of the applicants would be verified and the needy will be provided with this aid immediately after verification.
He emphasized that applicants would not have to visit any office, and financial aid would be paid online after receiving the required information.
The applicants can also lodge their complaints online, he mentioned.
The government has also released Zakat funds worth Rs870 million to help 170,000 deserving families, he asserted.
The CM stated that doctors and nurses are being trained at the district level adding that majority of coronavirus patients are pilgrims with travel history. About 33 are locally transmitted patients, he said.
Provincial ministers had been assigned duties to supervise the measures for dealing with the coronavirus in their districts.
They would also monitor the distribution of financial aid under the CM Insaf Imdad Programme along with monitoring of the wheat procurement campaign, he added.
Earlier, the commissioner of Lahore briefed the chief minister about the facilities to be provided in the field hospital.
Provincial ministers Dr Yasmeen Rashid and Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan and MPAs including Mussarat Jamshed Cheema, Uzma Kardaar and Sadia Sohail and Secretary Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education, Secretary Information and DG Rescue 1122 were also present.
Health minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid said this field hospital would have the ability to test patients for the coronavirus infection. Thirty-five ventilators from Shaukat Khanum Hospital and a total of 1,900 doctors and other paramedical staff had been deployed for duty.
She said that coronavirus screening, testing and consultation facilities will be provided to the patients in the makeshift hospital.
Three separate areas have been set up in the hospital, which would house the most serious, moderately sick and stable patients respectively, she added.
On the other hand, the convener of expert forum constituted for conducting research on the coronavirus, Prof. Dr. Mehmood Shaukat, stated that the forum had been conducting research to find a cure for the coronavirus, and DRAP had approved the study of Punjab about the coronavirus.
The genome of the local coronavirus is different from the Chinese coronavirus with 9 changes, therefore, foreign vaccine could be ineffective for it, he opined.