Govt to provide 1000 COVID-19 ICU beds to provinces: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said on Monday that the government has decided to provide 1000 more intensive care unit (ICU) beds for coronavirus patients to provinces in the ongoing month due to sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths, ARY News reported.

Briefing media about National Command and Control (NCOC) decisions, the planning minister said that the burden on hospitals is increasing, so therefore the government has started consultations with all provinces for the provision of more ICU beds to them for coronavirus patients.

“Burden on hospitals is rising due to a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths. In this regard, the federal government has decided to consult with all provinces regarding the provision of 1000 more ICU beds for Covid-19 patients,” said Asad Umar.

He said that the government distributed 250 ventilators to all four provinces during the last week.

Giving details about the ventilators, Asad Umar said that 72 ventilators have been provided to Punjab in the last week, while Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were given 52 ventilators each.

Read More: Pakistan performing over 22,000 Covid-19 tests per day: Asad Umar

He maintained that the coronavirus testing capacity will be further increased in July.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan now has passed 100,000 mark and currently stands at 103,671 after detection of 4,728 new infections in last 24 hours.

According to the latest data released by the National Command and Operation Center, death toll from COVID-19 is currently recorded at 2,067 with 65 more virus-related deaths reported in the past 24 hours

According to NCOC, 38,108 cases have been detected in Sindh, 38,903 in Punjab, 13,487 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 6,516 in Balochistan, 5,329 in Islamabad, 396 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 932 in Gilgit Baltistan.

So far 34,355 patients have recovered from coronavirus in the country, while 67,249 are still fighting the deadly virus.

Pakistan carried out 22,650 tests to detect coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the overall number of the tests in the country to 705,833.