Staff Reporter
Islamabad
National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lt-Gen Muhammad Afzal has said there is no dearth of ventilators and personal protection equipment to treat the Covid-19 patients across the country and “everything is under control”.
Briefing media in Islamabad on Tuesday, he said at the moment, there are 4,200 ventilators in public and private hospitals in addition to 500 ventilators in military hospitals, adding that only 128 patients are on ventilators across the country.
Lt-Gen Afzal said around 1,350 ventilators are being used for corona patients, which is less than half of the total capacity. Around 2,000 ventilators will be required by the end of next month (June) for which, he said, a contingency plan has already been chalked out.
As of now, NDMA has 183 intensive care unit ventilators in its warehouses as well as oxygen, CPAP, and BiPAP ventilators, said the chairman, adding that the government has given orders to procure over 1,300 more ventilators from various countries. United States has also offered to donate 200 ventilators and half of them will arrive very soon, he maintained.
Regarding availability of beds for coronavirus patients, the NDMA chairman said, “We have over 10,000 ICU beds in 365 government hospitals across Pakistan and only 2,211 of them are in use, which is 20 per cent below the available capacity.
