Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Tuesday that a special committee of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was monitoring the oxygen situation in the country and trying to improve it.
He made the comments during a press conference in Islamabad to apprise the public about the government’s steps to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Asking the public to “trust” decisions taken by NCOC, he said the forum was working to increase the capacity of hospitals.
“Existing oxygen plants are being monitored and we are looking at additional plants. The [Pakistan] Steel Mills plant was also talked about so it is being looked at. We have also diverted [oxygen supply] from non-essential industries.”
Besides this, the NCOC was also monitoring the logistics of supplying oxygen from the plants to the hospitals, he said, adding that the forum would issue guidelines regarding oxygen usage to prevent losses.
SAPM Sultan said that lockdowns were being imposed in areas with high positivity rates such as Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Government will not hesitate to lockdown more areas if other interventions don’t work in the next few days,” he added.
Moving on to the country’s vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, Dr Sultan said the rollout was “moving forward without any obstacles”.
He said an impression was being given that the government was only relying on donations to get vaccines. “We are buying vaccines from three separate manufacturers. Since March, we have bought three million [vaccine doses] and signed deals for 30m.”
In addition to these, 1.7m doses had been donated by China, the SAPM said. “To say we are waiting for grants is incorrect and misleading,” he added.
He recalled that there was a global shortage of Covid-19 vaccines and countries’ local supply was not enough to cater to their populations which was why vaccine rollouts had slowed down in some rich countries despite advance booking of doses.
“A lot of big manufacturers could not meet demands. Covax (global vaccine alliance) made a commitment but the programme is facing difficulty because of the global shortage. This is why we had to change our direction,” he elaborated.
Giving details about vaccine administration, Dr Sultan said there were 1,200 vaccinations centres countrywide of which 22 were mass vaccination centres. “As of today, two million vaccine doses have been administered. So it is going forward really well. From tomorrow, people aged over 50 will be able to walk in [for vaccination].”
He added that vaccine registration for people 40 and above had begun from today.
The SAPM urged people to get themselves vaccinated, terming it “really important”.
“Use face masks, keep a distance of six feet, avoid places where there are crowds. Let’s celebrate Ramazan and Eid with simplicity,” he said.
The NCOC in its meeting today analysed in detail oxygen demand and supply, the forum said in a statement.
It also discussed the option of importing oxygen from abroad.
The meeting decided that routine elective surgeries in all public and private hospitals in the country would be postponed.
The managing director of Utility Stores Corporation briefed the forum about supplies in areas that would be put under lockdown.
