K-P govt decides not to cut ADP

Taimur Jhagra says Covid-19 recovery rate of 31% higher than anywhere else in Pakistan

PESHAWAR:

Even as the province had to divert development funds to fight the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in the province, which has so far infected some 6,554 people and with 345 associated deaths, the government has decided that it will not cut the annual development programme (ADP).

Addressing a news conference at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health and Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that they had released all annual developments funds in December while recording the lowest expenditures.

However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had affected their expenditures.

Despite that, he said that in the next budget, there will be an investment in the health sector.

On the spread of the virus, he said that they have entered the next phase after lockdown. The effectiveness of the lockdown, he said, was proved in how the infection and death rate has declined and that the lockdown allowed the provincial government to handle the spread of the virus.

Around 10-12 Covid-19 associated deaths are occurring daily, with an increase of three per cent on a weekly basis, he said. Initially, the death ratio was quite high. But by the time they relaxed the lockdown, it had fallen to just 10 per cent.

Defending the relaxation in the lockdown, he said that the entire world has realized that the lockdown is not the final solution to the virus. If it were the final solution, the developed countries would have extended their lockdowns.

Jhagra, who was given the health portfolio after its previous incumbent Shahram Khan Tarakai was removed from the provincial cabinet, said that they have quickly added to their health capacity.

“We have 200 isolations centres, that have a capacity of 5,598 beds. Likewise, 359 quarantine centres have been established and 550 ventilators have been specified for Covid-19 patients,” he said.

Virus testing in the rest of the country has increased by 30 per cent, while K-P has increased it by 50 per cent, he said, adding that on Tuesday, 1,650 tests were conducted in the province.

“A few days ago, 1,000 tests were being conducted daily on an average, and this number has been increased to 1,500 tests a day on average,” he said, adding that most of these tests are being conducted in the public sector.

Now, he said, they were working on establishing new testing laboratories to increase testing capacity to 3,000 tests daily.

We are doing 1,000 tests every day at Khyber Medical University and in public laboratories where they couldn’t do 100 tests a day, while we have still been targeted for our performances. The minister went on to say that this although the health department in the province has been neglected for the past 70 years.

“Now we are going the extra mile for our people,” he said.

The health minister further said that their record of recovery is 31 per cent, more than any other province. He urged the public to observe their social duties of wearing masks when in public and observing social distances adding that the government does not want to place a penalty on violations of its directives.On the shortcomings of protection equipment for medical staff, he said that these have been addressed with 1.2 million masks, 76,000 pieces of protective gear, and 70,000 N-95 masks have been delivered to hospitals.

Jhagra reminded that the government cannot focus on Covid-19 alone while ignoring other issues. We have to protect the public from other feral illnesses as well, he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2020.