Zafar Mirza says Pakistan to increase daily COVID-19 testing capacity to 20000

ISLAMABAD: As coronavirus cases crossed 4,000 on Wednesday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said that country’s coronavirus testing capacity will be enhanced to 20,000 tests from 6000, ARY News reported.

Zafar Mirza said this during a meeting at National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad with Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar in the chair.

Briefing the meeting, Zafar Mirza said that the government is striving to increase the testing capacity to 20,000 per day from the end of April.

The meeting was told that Rs150 billion have been distributed among poor people under Ehsaas Programme amid coronavirus pandemic.

The final decision on a complete restoration of flight operation will be taken after April 11, meeting briefed.

The meeting also discussed digital tracking and tracing mechanism for identification of hotspots, clusters to isolate targeted areas and containment efforts in corona affected areas.

Read More: National Command and Control Centre confirms 4,072 coronavirus cases

Interior Minister Aijaz Shah, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Division (SAPM) Moeed Yusuf, Special Assistant on Poverty Sania Nishtar, PM Imran’s focal person on corona Dr Faisal Sultan and others attended the meeting.

The confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan on Wednesday reached 4,072, according to the National Command and Control Centre’s latest statistics.

According to the report, as many as 208 new cases of the COVID-19 were reported across the country during the last 24 hours. So far 467 patients have recovered from the deadly virus, whereas the death toll has surged to 58.

18 deaths were recorded in Sindh, 16 in Punjab, 18 in KP, three in GB, 2 in Balochistan and one death was reported in the federal capital.

According to the breakup of the cases, province-wide Punjab tops the list with 2030 cases, while Sindh has recorded 986 coronavirus cases so far.