Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza on Friday said that it will be ‘premature’ to say that all deaths in Sindh are due to Covid-19 outbreak.
“Until tests haven’t been done, you cannot say whether a person has died from Covid-19,” he told a media briefing in Islamabad, adding that the primary method of ascertaining whether a person died due to Covid-19 is a laboratory test. “Without testing, any conclusions will be mere speculation,” he added.
Referring to media reports claiming the number of deaths in Sindh is much higher than being reported, Mirza said the Sindh health department has started a process of contact tracing after some recent unexplained deaths, which is a welcome move.
He said the coronavirus fatality rate of 1.9% in Pakistan is still ‘very low’ as compared to the global figure of 6.7%. He said the reason behind the low number of deaths in Pakistan is the immediate measures taken by the government to control the spread of the contagion. He said the country will have the capacity to carry out 20,000 coronavirus tests on daily basis by the end of current month as it has one million diagnostic kits for disease available. The testing capacity is gradually improving as 6,264 tests, the highest number in a day, were conducted on Friday, he said.
Mirza said the government will soon announce the national policy on ‘tracing, testing and quarantine’ as the basic strategy to diagnose the disease and its curtailment through isolation and quarantine. He said the government has decided to introduce an information technology based platform ‘Yaran-e-Watan’ for engaging 30,000 Pakistani doctors and health professionals working in different countries who want to contribute towards the national cause. He said work is underway on the guidelines for the holy month of Ramazan with the consultation of stakeholders concerned, which would be issued very soon for the people.
