Chairman Task Force for Science and Technology, Dr Ata ur Rehman has appealed the government of Sindh to take immediate and concrete steps to control increasing coronavirus cases reported in South and East of Karachi. He urged for increasing testing capacity besides implementing steps to identify patients and ensure safety and security of the people. Talking to a private news channel, he said practicing social distancing and other necessary standard operating procedures would help combat spreading of the virus in the country. He said identifying patients would also help count exact number of virus-affected people and to restrict spread of pandemic.The existing capacity of testing people was not sufficient, he remarked adding, the government would have to accelerate process of testing from 20,000 per day to 1,00,000 per day and may be more. About the treatment of coronavirus pandemic, he said our pathological experts were engaged in a project for clinical testing of the affected patients with this dangerous virus. Elaborating the procedure adopted by the health experts in Karachi and Lahore, he said combination of two drugs namely hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with erthromycin, being used for treating infection would yield results. To a question about vaccination, Dr Ata ur Rehman said, it would take nearly 10 to 12 months for checking the authenticity of the vaccination. He added that after manufacturing period of the vaccination, they need to undergo clinical testing of COVID-19, patients. He hoped that combination of drugs would be helpful for treating COVID-19, virus. In reply to a question about rising number of death in the country, he said thanks to Almighty Allah, the fatality rate in Pakistan was not as much high as reported in European countries.
