Federal Secretary Health, Syed Anwar Mahmood has directed that all officials of the ministry of health, attached departments and autonomous bodies dealing with earthquake relief shall remain on duty during Eid holidays.
Furthermore, no official stationed in the twin-cities working for earthquake relief shall leave the station during Eid days, he said.
Chairing a meeting of National Disaster Management Committee here on Sunday, the health secretary remarked that everyone associated with the operation in the health sector was working untiringly and their vital contribution at this critical juncture was instrumental in saving lives and providing relief to those in need.
Anwar Mahmood expressed his gratitude to World Health Organisation and Unicef for their continued assistance and technical support in the relief operation.
The health secretary was informed that Reckitt Benckiser has donated 5 million rupees in relief items including 2.5 million rupees worth of direly needed chlorine tablets.
It was observed during the meeting that in view of the risk of spread of water-borne diseases in the quake-hit areas, the tablets should be distributed and people will to be educated on the use of these tablets to purify water.
The meeting was informed that a high-level Iranian delegation, in a meeting with the Federal Health Minister on Saturday, pledged to provide two specialised mobile artificial limb units.
The units with state-of-the-art facilities will have the capacity of preparing and providing artificial limbs to the patients on the spot.
The efforts of foreign medical teams were lauded during the meeting, and special mention was made of a German maxio-facial surgeon, Ali Raza Ghassemi, who carried out some very complicated operations on quake victims at the PIMS in Islamabad.
As on Sunday the total figure of patients from affected areas registered in the hospitals of twin-cities stood at 14,983, whereas 3,623 were admitted.