Federal Minister for Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar advised the public against panic buying that ample stocks of basic food items such as wheat and edible oil were in Coronavirus outbreak.
Khusro Bakhtiar said while addressing a press conference with Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf and Chairman NDMA that Pakistan was self-sufficient in poultry, livestock and dairy food items.
He told the people not to spoil in panic buying food items and hoard items. The minister said that the federal government will need to enhance inter-provincial management for supply of food items in the future to tackle the Coronavirus epidemic.
Chairman NDMA, Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal, said that the government had provided the institution enough funds which would enable it to manage the Coronavirus epidemic.
He said that the government had decided to provide Pakistani health workers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by April 5, 2020. However, we will be able to achieve this by March 30, 2020.
Lt Gen Afzal said that negotiations were underway and by next Friday, all health workers will have PPE. He said that 120 ventilators will be brought to Pakistan from China as well.
He further said that the ventilators quantity will be increased to 1,200 in the second phase of our operations and by third phase, to 4,000 Insha’Allah.
The chairman NDMA said that a Pakistani engineer had designed a ventilator and he will take a look at the final product today. He acknowledged China’s help in the fight against the Coronavirus.
He added that our brother China has helped us a lot in this crisis. A group of doctors from China will also arrive to assist us in tackling the Coronavirus in Pakistan.