Planning Minister Asad Umar has reaffirmed the government's commitment to provide all-out facilities to paramedical staff engaged in treatment of Coronavirus-hit patients across the country.

He was addressing to media briefing along with Special Assistant on National health Services Dr. Zafar Mirza about prevailing Coronavirus situation in Islamabad this evening.

The Planning Minister said the federal government has provided 39,500 personal protective kits to the provinces so far, while further medical equipment, including ventilators, will be provided directly to the hospitals from Thursday. 

He informed that Pakistan has now capacity of conducting 3,000 Coronavirus tests per day in 18 functional laboratories across the country.  Asad Umar further expressed the confidence that Pakistan will be able to conduct 25,000 Coronavirus tests per day by the end of this month.

The Minister expressed resolve that the government is spending 40 billion rupees to provide edibles to people at the utilities stores in the country. 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Zafar Mirza informed that overall 4,004 positive cases of Coronavirus have emerged in the country with Islamabad 83, Punjab 2,004, Sindh 932, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 500, Balochistan 202, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 18 and Gilgit Baltistan 211.

The Special Assistant further said that 429 patients have recovered so far, 54 patients have died, while 28 are in critical condition, who needed ventilators for survival.

Dr Zafar Mirza said during the last 24 hours, 3,088 tests were conducted, out of which 577 cases were declared positive, while four persons died due to this pandemic.

(Imran/Abdul Rehman)