‘Patients getting best treatment’

LAHORE:Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid gave an overview of corona situation in Punjab at the third National Parliamentary Committee meeting on corona pandemic through a video link conference at the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department here on Monday.

Dr Yamin Rashid apprised the participants of the status and arrangements for treatment, diagnosis, reserved beds, availability of services, trials of different medicines and provision of protective equipment the healthcare professionals. She said that best possible treatment facilities have been arranged for Covid-19 patients.

The health minister said, “Over 700 recovered patients have returned homes and over 58,000 tests have been conducted in Punjab, which is above 50pc of the total tests in the country whereas the testing capacity is being further enhanced. We are also scaling up test capacity at other BSL-3 Labs in Punjab which will be functional very soon and currently a stock of over 55000 test kits is available. Bahria Orchard Hospital has also started tests for Rs 2,000 per test.”

The minister also said that quarantine arrangements for 30,000 people have been made in Punjab and private hospitals have also been directed to reserve facilities for corona patients.

Dr Yasmin Rashid said, “The Personal Protective Equipment has been delivered to over 6,000 health professionals in Multan and the test results of majority of healthcare professionals in Multan are negative. We are making all out efforts to ensure safe working environment for hospital staff. The entire nation will have to fight this battle and we are trying to utilize all resources under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.”

The meeting was chaired by Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser and attended by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Sherry Rehman, Khawaja Asif, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Dr Zafar Mirza, Zaheeruddin Babar and a number of other Parliamentarians. Alongside the Punjab Health Minister, the meeting was attended by Special Secretary Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department Ms Silwat Saeed, Additional Secretary SHME Dr Asif Tufail and other senior officials.