China provides over 200 mobile oxygen concentrators
ISLAMABAD: As the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has expressed fears that Covid-19 cases may rise during Eidul Azha holidays, China on Wednesday handed over 200 mobile oxygen concentrators to Pakistan.
The oxygen concentrators were handed over to chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt Gen Akhtar Nawaz by China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong at a ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by officials of the Chinese embassy, ministries of National Health Services and Foreign Affairs and NDMA.
Speaking on the occasion, the NDMA chairman, on behalf of the people and the government of Pakistan, thanked the people and government of China for donating the oxygen concentrators.
Mr Nong said China-Pakistan relations were growing stronger with the passage of time.
An oxygen concentrator is a device that concentrates oxygen from air by selectively removing nitrogen to supply an oxygen-enriched gas stream.
Meanwhile, according to data of the NCOC, 27 deaths and 979 cases of coronavirus have been reported in a single day.
The number of active Covid-19 cases, which was over 90,000 in April, stood at 31,606 on June 30.
As many as 2,132 patients were admitted to hospitals and 249 of them were provided ventilators because of their condition. There was no patient on ventilator in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.
In a related development, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has registered a second ventilator which has been made in Pakistan.
Under the Drap Act, 2012, the authority allowed M/s National Engineering and Scientific Commission of Pakistan to manufacture ventilators named PakVent-1 which have service life of around 10 years.
The registration will be valid for five years unless earlier suspended or cancelled by the government.
In April the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) had announced having developed the country’s first indigenous intensive care unit (ICU) ventilator — i-Live.
The ventilator was developed by PAEC’s scientists and engineers keeping in view all essential quality standards and regulatory requirements, the PAEC had said in a statement.
It had further said that doctors at the PAEC hospital in Islamabad also provided the input during the development process of the ventilator.
