Hospitals Zafar concerned at suspension of routine operations

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Dr Zafar Mirza on Monday, while expressing serious concern over the closure of the normal operations of the hospitals across the country had said that the government would very soon launch a telemedicine system to serve the patients.

Addressing a news conference here, he said that on the basis on the coronavirus outbreak, the government would devise future health policy and a healthcare system.

Mirza added that under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan with input from top religious scholars a 20-point Ramzan-specific policy had been decided.

He stated that the government had outlined standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be observed during Ramzan in consultation with leading religious scholars, adding that the media would play a critical role for creating awareness among the masses.

Mirza said that globally 2.4 million people had been infected by the coronavirus of which over 165,000 people had died and more than 633,000 infected people had recovered.

Talking about coronavirus situation in Pakistan, he said that so far nationwide 104,302 tests had been conducted, during the past 24 hours 4,873 tests were carried out countrywide, which as compared with the past week were quite low as in the past week Pakistan even touched 8,000 tests per day mark.

The SAPM said that by the end of the ongoing month, Pakistan had set a target of conducting 20,000 tests per day.

He said that in the past 24 hours, 425 new coronavirus cases had emerged in the country, of which 182 were in Sindh, 98 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 72 in Punjab, 56 in Balochistan, six in Gilgit-Baltistan, and one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

At present, total coronavirus cases in Pakistan are 8,418 of which 176 people have died.

In past 24 hours, 17 people have lost their lives due to the Covid-19, which is joint highest number of deaths in Pakistan.

He said that 74 percent of the deaths were male, and over 82 percent above 50 years of age, and 83 percent had history of past illness.