‘Only 55 ventilators’: KP submits report to SC over coronavirus suo motu notice

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has submitted its report to the Supreme Court in a suo motu notice case over the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 5,000 people across Pakistan and left almost 90 dead.

In its report, the KP government said there were only 55 ventilators in the province’s district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals but recommended the number be bumped up to 150.

It added that quarantine centres have been set up in KP for some 1,225 patients. However, a recommendation to set up quarantine centres for another 400 people in Jamrud has been made in the report.

According to the report, 50kV generators had been placed in the quarantine centres.

The report mentioned that 300 rooms with separate washrooms for each individual exist in the province. Pakistani citizens travelling from Torkham Border to and from the quarantine centres were being provided transportation with protocol, it stated.

The provincial government would give out Rs5.65 billion to some 942,245 deserving people under the ruling party’s Ehsaas Programme. The funds would be handed out via biometric system.

On a daily basis, 734 tests are being carried out in laboratories across the province, the report noted, adding that the KP government planned to bump up the number to 2,000 by setting up four new laboratories.

On Friday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed Khan took his first suo motu notice over “inadequate facilities” in Pakistan to combat the worsening coronavirus pandemic, asking the attorney general, as well as the health and interior secretaries for their responses in this regard.

Justice Ahmed has asked the three respondents to provide details of what measures the government has taken so far to contain the spread of the virus and what facilities have been provided to hospitals. A hearing by a larger, five-member bench was scheduled for April 13.

A day after Justice Ahmed’s suo motu notice, the federal government had submitted a response, assuring the top court that authorities were taking all possible measures to curtail the rapid spread of the virus in the country.