No dearth of ventilators in Sindh's hospitals, claims CM's adviser.

Byline: Imran Ayub

KARACHI -- Rejecting criticism against Sindh's public health system, Chief Minister's Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Tuesday claimed that there was no shortage of ventilators in public hospitals of the province and the recent death of a Covid-19 positive doctor was not because of lack of ventilators.

He said the provincial government was also building capacity of its health system and adding more technology and facilities to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

'The death of Dr Furqan is so saddening and unfortunate but it's not due to shortage or unavailability of a ventilator,' he said while speaking at a press conference at the auditorium hall of the Sindh Assembly.

'The chief minister has already initiated an inquiry into that issue and its report would emerge within next few days. So I don't want to comment on this subject before the inquiry committee completes its job.'

283 ventilators in govt hospitals

However, he continued: 'I just want to share the true picture. There are 283 ventilators in government hospitals in Sindh. The Sindh government has decided to buy 250 disposable ventilators. Similarly, the Sindh health department has also decided to buy 163 ventilators.'

Murtaza Wahab says Covid-positive Dr Furqan did not die because of non-availability of ventilators; media support plan launched

He said Sindh was offering 90 per cent free coronavirus tests. Anyone could call the government helpline and get tested at home. The opposition parties were criticising the Sindh government out of frustration after finding the federal government failing miserably in the fight against the global pandemic, he added.

'The problem is that the opponents have been unable to digest the good performance of the Sindh government,' he said. 'On February 26, when the first case was reported, the Sindh government had formed a task force. Since then, the Sindh government has set a three-pronged strategy of tracing, testing and treatment. The world knows how things started going wrong at the Taftan border and at airports.'

13 labs can conduct 4,800 tests daily

While referring to the initiatives of the Sindh government, Barrister Wahab said that there were 13 coronavirus testing laboratories in Sindh having a capacity of 4,800 tests per day.

The largest coronavirus testing laboratory in the country was located at the University of Karachi and the Sindh government had decided to increase the capacity of the Karachi University Corona...