KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group and President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain has said that the government should ensure availability of oxygen, vaccine, and masks, involve the private sector in manufacturing of vaccine and related machinery while trying to waive taxes to bring prices down.

Government can consider reviving oxygen generating facilities closed since long, initiate imports as demand may jump to 200 to 300 percent, and curtail supply to some industries using this gas to tackle scarcity as the country is already consuming ninety percent of the production which is very alarming, he added.

Lauding the role of the Army in enforcing SOPs to save precious lives, he said that the government has taken the right decision to call the Army to assist the civil administration which was under increased pressure due to a surge in the pandemic as over 200 deaths in 24 hours have been recorded for the first time.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that seventy thousand people have been infected, ratio of positive cases has reached 11 percent which is 30 percent higher as compared to last year.

Lauding the role of the Army, he said that in many countries around the world, the armed forces are being called upon in increasing numbers to assist in the war against the coronavirus pandemic.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021