WHO Dr Palitha Mahipala, WHO Representative in Pakistan on Monday handed over PCOT and PCR kits to Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, Chairman National Disaster Management (NDMA).
Dr Palitha Mahipala, WHO Representative in Pakistan, handed over PCOT and PCR kits to Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, Chairman NDMA, in the presence of Major General Prof. Dr Aamer Ikram, Executive Director-NIH, in a simple yet an elegant ceremony held at the World Health Organization Country Office today.
Dr Palitha handed over 15 units of POCKIT Central Nucleic Acid Analyzer, 15000 pieces of Specimen Collection and Transport Swab with sample storage solution and 1000 machines of SARS-CoV2 tests which can conduct 15000 tests.
Present on the occasion were representatives from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Institute of Health (NIH) and staff of World Health Organization (WHO) in Pakistan.
While addressing the gathering, Dr Palitha said that since the infection began here, WHO has been working very hard, hand in hand with the Government of Pakistan, NDMA and NIH and federal and provincial health authorities to see, how best WHO can support for a comprehensive response for COVID-19. We observed when the response is elevated to NDMA, many things started to happen more quickly. I truly appreciate the leadership of government, ministry of health and the Chairman NDMA for the response on CIVID-19 is quality, comprehensive and robust.
Major General Prof. Dr Aamer Ikram, ED-NIH, in his remarks said that it’s an honor for the country to receive the state-of-the-art-equipment. WHO, NDMA and NIH go hand in hand in further strengthening of COVID-19 response
Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, Chairman NDMA, while addressing the participants, thanked WHO for being with us since inception of Pakistan and WHO is one of the leading organization who is working closely with us. WHO is providing technical support to NDMA, guiding us on how to handle things. “I would like to thank WHO with the bottom of my heart, especially Dr Palitha Mahipala for providing all support to us . In addition to this, Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said that there is no dearth of PPEs and is of good quality and it has been provided to frontline doctors and nurses and to those who are working in the hospital. “We are now ready to supply one hundred thousand PPEs to all hospitals weekly and if required we will be able to supply more. Today we have the capacity to conduct 52 thousand test daily, although we are using a small fraction of it.” Said NDMA Chairman.
