Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Tuesday said the federal government will start disbursing cash of Rs 12,000 per family from Thursday (tomorrow) under its special package to support the people badly hit by the lockdown imposed by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus.
“In the first phase, we will disburse Rs 48 billion to four million families for which 16,923 distribution points have been established across the country,” he told a media briefing on coronavirus here along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza.
Asad Umar said all arrangements have been finalized to start the process for cash disbursement. Some 12 million families will receive Rs 12,000 in cash each in phases. He said out of total 16,923 distribution points, 3,700 have been set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 396 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 285 in Gilgit Baltistan, 708 in Balochistan, 4,374 in Sindh, 7,299 in Punjab and 161 in Islamabad. He said protective measures will be taken and the people will not be allowed to gather in large numbers at the distribution points. He clarified that the federal government will provide cash to the families directly in every corner of the country without any discrimination.
The minister said the doctors have the right to have protective equipment because they are the frontline warriors against the coronavirus. The government is taking every possible measure to protect the doctors and other healthcare workers, he added.
He said the federal government had provided 39,500 protective kits for health workers to the provinces against requests for 22,000. Balochistan received 5,600 kits, Islamabad 2,000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 7,600, Punjab 10,600, Sindh 9,200, AJK 3,000 and Gilgit Baltistan 500, he added.
The federal government, he said, will provide medical equipment directly to 400 identified hospitals where the facility of ventilators is available. Initially, he said, they have shortlisted 153 hospitals having minimum five ventilators, including four in AJK, seven in Islamabad, four in Balochistan, 21 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 75 in Punjab and 42 in Sindh, who will be provided the equipment in the first phase.
Asad Umar said about three weeks ago, the country had the ability to test 700 to 800 samples for the coronavirus per day, which has now been increased to 3,000 tests, and by the end of April, it will rise to 25,000 tests in a day.
The minister said in order to avoid the spread of coronavirus on a large scale in the country, the people should take all the protective measures. “No one, including the poor or the rich, is completely safe from the virus … so everybody should take care of him or her,” he added.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said mass testing is an extremely effective way of defeating Covid-19. “The curve of coronavirus cases can be flattened in Pakistan through mass testing,” he said.
He revealed that in Pakistan, 163 tests are being conducted per one million people. In comparison, 50 tests per one million are being carried out in India and 964 per million in Iran. While acknowledging that the figure of 163 tests per million is ‘not really enough’, he said all efforts are being put into increasing the testing capacity.
Mirza said the government is constantly tracing contacts of those who have tested positive for the virus and revealed that his team is working on a strategy titled ‘Track, Test and Quarantine’ as part of the government’s overall strategy to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.
