Pakistan makes face masks compulsory in public places

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has emphasized the need for educating the masses and disseminating of guidelines through a robust public awareness campaign to ensure the wearing of face masks at public places.

The NCOC in a meeting headed by the Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar discussed the current status of testing capacity per million of the population, ventilator stocks, possible future demand, and capacity building of the health care professionals to cope with the pandemic at different tiers.

NCOC was told that a special documentary on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) had been successfully launched and telecasted on all media channels.

The documentary is aimed at visually aiding doctors, paramedics, and health care workers to wear PPE equipment during different procedures. The documentary would not only ensure the safety of doctors but will also contribute towards judicious utilization and avoidance of unnecessary use of PPE.

Major areas of usage include inpatient facilities, outpatient facilities, community / social, labs / sampling places. NCOC through a joint effort of health Ministry & health experts had already prepared guidelines/ SOPs based on world’s best practices about wearing of PPE by different health care workers.

These guidelines/ SOPs had already been disseminated to all concerned.

In order to benefit from this, a special documentary was prepared depicting the usage of various PPE equipments by different people while performing their duties during COVID-19.

Asad Umar said that in a short span, the government has been able to reach out to people through Ehsaas Programme, and relief to industrial sector and powers bills payment for small and medium enterprises had also been provided.

“Over Rs. 100 billion have been distributed to more than 8 million beneficiaries through Ehsaas Emergency Cash Relief,” he added.

Asad Umar said that the Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar had prepared Rs 50 billion project to benefit 3.5 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whereas an agricultural relief package worth Rs 50 billion for farmers was also launched and subsequently Rs 50 billion were allocated for the health sector. Around 1 Lac health professionals would get training through a special program for training on PPE use and 5000 ICU workers were also receiving specialized training, he added.