Mayo, Expo Centre's hospitals : Punjab designates two health facilities for screening of Covid-19 suspects

While the number of coronavirus positive cases is on rise with every passing day, the Punjab government has designated two health facilities for screening of suspects of COVID-19 in Lahore.
The Health department has announced that the people can visit Mayo Hospital and Expo Centre field hospital for examination and screening of coronavirus suspects.
In Lahore, there are over 190 confirmed cases of coronavirus while so far five deaths have been reported.
Sources claimed that the province of Punjab received between 500 and 1,000 testing kits on a daily basis from the NIH and tests are mainly carried out at the Provincial Public Health Reference Lab, Shaukat Khanam Memorial Cancer Hospital (SKMCH) and Chughtai Lab. Tests are carried out for free at the provincial lab and SKMCH, which are provided kits by the NIH, while the people can pay to get tested at Chughtai Lab.
The Primary and Secondary Healthcare department which currently has capacity of around 350-400 tests on daily basis aims to establish eight additional labs across the province by mid-April, which will increase its testing capacity to more than 3,000 per day, the sources added.
On Thursday, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar inspected the quarantine centres set up in Sohdra area of Wazirabad tehsil in Gujranwala and Cadet College Jhelum near Dina.
He inspected both the facilities and announced to set up field hospitals for coronavirus patients at divisional level in Punjab. Abundant resources have been provided for dealing with the pandemic and funds will also be provided on a priority basis in future for this purpose, he assured.
The CM asserted that a most transparent system has been devised to facilitate the daily wagers and government is standing with the masses in this hour of trial.
He pointed out that 1000-bed field hospital has been installed at Expo Center, Lahore in a short period. Those who are doing politics over this pandemic are not loyal to the nation as it is the time to unite the people, he added. He reaffirmed that people will not be left alone adding that those who have done this, are now limited to the issuance of statements.
The CM was briefed that the quarantine centre of Muslims Hands Educational Complex Sohdra can accommodate 500 patients and necessary facilities have been arranged according to the devised SOPs. Similarly, one thousand beds have also been arranged in Gujrat for providing treatment facility to the affected people. 11000 inhabitants have been identified in Gujranwala through track trace tests and screening of 3933 is also conducted.
Different facilities are being provided to 700 people who are confined to their residences through a street lockdown. Meanwhile, the expatriate families and those in contact with them are being regularly screened, the CM was further told.
The chief minister also inspected the 120-bed quarantine centre at Cadet College Jhelum where he was told that coronavirus has been confirmed in 28 patients in Jhelum.
1327 others, who came from abroad, were again screened. Arrangements have been made to keep 552 patients in isolation and this facility will be increased to 1022 beds.
The CM stated that screening of all the people coming from abroad has been ordered and geotagging of their residencies will also be done. Timely steps have been taken by the Punjab government to secure the lives of the citizens and this pandemic will be defeated through joint efforts, he added.