Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated the country’s first ventilator production facility in a major step towards making Pakistan self-sufficient in medical devices.
In a separate development, the Prime Minister raised the issue of travel bans related to corona virus in Pakistan in a video conference with the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and sought their cooperation in lifting these bans.
“This is a significant achievement for the country and I congratulate the entire team for this,” Imran Khan said after inaugurating the ventilators factory at the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) in Haripur.
“The government’s focus will now be on health sector reform,” he said. “Our approach to adopting smart lockdown in response to this epidemic and keeping the economy afloat has been widely recognized and now Our focus will be on comprehensive health care.
The Prime Minister lauded the initiative of NRTC and the Ministry of Science and Technology to create ventilators at the local level.
Imran Khan said that the country has no shortage of capabilities to become self-reliant in new technologies and the government would support all such initiatives to encourage the talents of the youth.
Later, Prime Minister Imran Khan visited various parts of the NRTC.
Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub, Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Code 19 Dr. Faisal Sultan and Chairman NDMA Lt. Gen. Muhammad Afzal were present on the occasion.
Brigadier Tawfiq Ahmed, Managing Director, NRTC, briefed the Prime Minister on the history of NRTC, its areas of research and development, and the products and services provided by NRTC.
He said that NRTC was locally developing communication equipment, electro-medical devices and hardware and software for these devices.
In a video conference with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom, Khan also spoke about the government’s efforts to stem the spread of the corona virus in Pakistan.
According to a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts to curb the spread of the virus and praised the government’s efforts in this regard.
Imran Khan appreciated the support provided by WHO to Pakistan and other countries in the fight against corona virus.
He highlighted Pakistan’s strategy for rapid improvement in healthcare as well as scientific and data-driven interventions, while striving to maintain a balance between life and livelihood, while positively reflecting the declining trend in the spread of epidemic diseases. He also told about the results.
He called on the WHO to play its part in lifting the travel ban on corona virus on Pakistan and other countries and to involve member countries in working towards a data-driven system of non-discriminatory travel rules. Pay
The head of the World Health Organization said the WHO was working on travel guidelines for the virus to help the international community make its travel decisions in light of the guidelines.