COVID-19 fight: Another team of Chinese doctors ready to arrive in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: The federal authorities have granted permission to a special cargo carrying a team of Chinese doctors to help Pakistan in fighting coronavirus pandemic, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Beijing has decided to send provide doctors to Islamabad for assisting Pakistan’s medical staff fighting COVID-19 pandemic on the front line.

A special cargo plane will carry a team of Chinese doctors from Urumqi which will be landed at Islamabad International Airport on April 17, whereas, the same flight will also uplift cargo on the return flight.

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Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted permission for the landing of the aircraft, however, the disembarkation of cabin crew will not be allowed. The same flight had brought back the Chinese doctors’ team on April 10.

It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday announced to extend the ongoing country-wide lockdown for another two weeks in view of rising number of novel coronavirus cases in the country.

Addressing a joint press conference following the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting, PM Imran Khan said that all the public places and educational institutions will remain closed during the lockdown. He urged the people to follow the safety instruction issued by the government to protect themselves from COVID-19.

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Earlier on March 28, a team of Chinese doctors and paramedics had arrived in Pakistan to help the country in containing the spread of the coronavirus besides carrying relief assistance. Eight Chinese doctors specialised to contain coronavirus were also among the team.

The Chinese team remained in Pakistan for around two weeks and consulted healthcare specialists in the light of their experience and success in battling COVID-19 in China.

Moreover, the relief assistance to Pakistan included 12,000 test kits, 300,000 masks, 10 thousand protective suits and 4 million dollars to build an isolation hospital. Xinjiang government had also provided 50 thousand masks each to the federal capital Islamabad as well as to Sindh government.