Need more laboratories to test coronavirus patients: CM Gilgit Baltistan

Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan Hafeezur Rehman on Thursday said that they were in need of laboratories to conduct testing process as currently they only have a lone coronavirus testing facility in the region.

“We do not have an issue of testing kits instead we need more laboratories here,” he said adding that they need two laboratories in Gilgit and Skardu areas of the region.

Divulging details of other facilities available in the region, the chief minister said that they have upto 35 ventilators available in the hospitals and testing kits were also provided to them from National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and China.

“We have established 110 quarantine rooms across Gilgit Baltistan,” said the chief minister adding that although patients have been shifted to isolation facilities but no hospital is yet used for treating the virus patients.

He said that the federal government and Chinese authorities have provided them with the personal protective equipment (PPE).

Hafeezur Rehman said that a doctor and a lab technician died after suffering from coronavirus in Gilgit Baltistan.

“It happened before the corona operation was launched from the government,” he said adding that they had provided medics with complete medical equipment needed during treatment of the virus patients.

It is pertinent to mention here that the tally of coronavirus cases in Pakistan reached 2,386 and death count jumped to 32, according to the national dashboard on Thursday.

The total count of COVID-19 includes 922 patients in Punjab, 761 in Sindh, 276 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 187 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), 169 in Balochistan, 62 in Islamabad, 9 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The death toll increases up to 32 and nine patients are in critical condition.