KARACHI: Sindh health department on Thursday said that it has been providing free of cost health facilities to patients from other parts of the country, ARY NEWS reported.
Divulging details of its budgetary allocations, the provincial department said that Rs 120 billion was earmarked for the sector during the ongoing fiscal year.
“Out of the total amount, Rs 50 billion is set aside to pay employees’ salaries,” it said as Rs 13 billion was earmarked for health sector’s uplift projects and four billion rupees as grant in aid for the medical universities.
The department while detailing amount distributed among different health institutions said that they provided Rs 6 billion to the SIUT, Rs 6.5 billion to PPHI and Rs 10.25 billion for the NICVD.
“Other than this, Rs 7 billion were provided to private health institutes for free of cost treatment to the poor patients,” the ministry said.
The spokesman further said that among various facilities provided to treat coronavirus patients, the province was also providing free of cost coronavirus test facilities.
The clarification from the provincial health department on its available resources came in the backdrop of rising pressure as coronavirus tally soars in the province.
According to details, Sindh recorded 14 coronavirus deaths on Thursday– the highest in a single day, taking the toll to 171, according to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
In his regular video message on the coronavirus situation in the province today, he said that 14 more patients have died from coronavirus during the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 171.
Besides, the CM said, 453 persons tested positive for the virus in Sindh on Thursday, raising the number of total reported cases in the province to 9,093.
So far, 76,078 tests have been carried out in the province, he added.
He said that 335 from 453 new cases belonged to Karachi, among which 81 were reported from South district, 69 from East district and 91 from Central district. This showed that of Sindh’s 9,093 cases, 4,762 had emerged in Karachi, the CM explained.
