Pakistan Effectively Implements Strategy To Control COVID-19 Pandemic: Dr Faisal

Muhammad Irfan Published September 17, 2021 | 03:10 AM

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Dr Faisal Sultan on Thursday said that Pakistan was among the few countries from whom the international community should learn how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing the seminar on 'the COVID Pandemic: Lessons from Italy and Pakistan', at the Institute of Regional Studies, Dr Faisal said that the government of Pakistan had made and implemented its strategy against Coronavirus with full dedication and commitment.

He said that decisions were made and steps were taken on the basis of experts' opinions and applying scientific methods. He added a dedicated team at National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) was responsible to monitor the daily pandemic situation and prepare action plan in coordination with the provinces and district administrations.

Dr Faisal said, "World can learn from about how to fight future pandemics due to hard work of our frontline health workers and doctors." He said that Pakistan deployed the infrastructure built up over many years for polio to combat Covid-19 as the community health workers who had been trained to go door-to-door vaccinating children for polio had been utilized for surveillance, contact tracing and care.

He said that it was collective efforts from the platform of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) due to which not only Pakistan proved all international estimates regarding the number of cases wrong but also minimized the cases.

He said that sincere efforts were made to further push back the virus. Pakistan had closed its borders and took a number of steps to stop the transmission due to which the first case of Covid-19 was reported very late, he added.

Similarly, he added, a policy of smart lock down was implemented to control disease spread through industries, including the construction industry, educational institutions, restaurants, marriage halls and markets.

He said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was involved to ensure medical equipment and health related supplies at the earliest due to which coordination with the provinces improved.