Pakistan has begun manufacturing oxygenators that 80pc of Covid-19 patients require as part of their treatment along with making ventilators using indigenous technology, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said.
Fawad Chaudhry described oxygenators as a simpler form of ventilators that help COVID-19 patients who have difficulty breathing.
The Pakistan Engineering Council has also received 53 ventilator designs, of which it has shortlisted 13. Seven of these designs have been approved and are in the last stage of licensing following European Union benchmarks.
“In six to seven months, Pakistan will not just have sufficient ventilators to meet local demand but will be in a position to export these lifesaving machines,” he said.
Chaudhry said that this moment of crisis has made it clear that the role of scientific research and development was underrated in Pakistan in the last decade. He said Pakistan is the only country in the world to cut funding for research and development after 2007 from 0.67pc of GDP to 0.24pc.
Cities ran short of hand sanitizer, disinfectant, and masks immediately after the first two cases of Covid-19 were detected in Pakistan.
“That is when we realized that we do not produce such basic items and were importing them. Since Pakistan is a major exporter of raw ethanol, an important ingredient in sanitizers and sprays, the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) was tasked to produce sanitizers and disinfectant sprays.
In two months, Pakistan is not just self-sufficient but is in a position to export these products,” he said. The PCSIR now has the capacity to produce 1,000 liters of sanitizer a day, which is available at Utility Stores, Ziaur Rehman from the PCSIR said.
The School of Biomedical and Engineering and Sciences and Attaur Rehman School of Applied Biosciences, both constituent colleges of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), began work on eye protection shields, personal protection equipment (PPE) and Covid-19 testing equipment according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.