Quarantine strategy helped ‘increase testing capacity’

NCOC states 631 smart lockdowns currently in place

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Thursday stated that the country’s testing has capacity increased twice-fold since the ‘test, track and quarantine strategy (TTQ)’ was implemented.

The data was shared by officials during a meeting of the NCOC chaired by Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar. It said that there are 631 smart lockdowns in place currently across the country.

The country’s chief body reviewing the coronavirus situation last Sunday reported over 30 times increase in the testing capacity – with 14,878 tests were conducted in a single data – as around 70 laboratories were now conducting tests against only two in mid-March.

Besides, the meeting discussed the Epi Curve Chart, the Decision Support System, the TTQ update, progress on the task tracker and the communication strategy, as well as the standard operating procedures for Eid.



Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Digital Pakistan Tania Ardrius briefed the forum about the Decision Support System where the NCOC officials also presented a briefing on the TTQ strategy update. Senior epidemiologist Dr Rana Safdar presented the Epi Curve Chart and informed that 22 per cent health workers were performing duties in the critical care, and 31% of the affected persons had recovered whereas over 1,000 were affected because of the novel coronavirus.

Umar said the electoral vote data was the most authentic one to be used for the Decision Support System, which was also available with the election commission.

The forum was also briefed about the task tracker system that aimed at recording the directions and tasks assigned to various ministries and departments though the NCOC forum.

The forum appreciated the Ministries of Interior, Railways, Commerce, National Security Division, and the National Disaster Management Authority for their prompt response and active feedback.

According to government data, the country has over 48,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 2,193 cases emerging in the past 24 hours. Of these, 32,919 are active cases and 1,017 fatalities have been recorded thus far.

Since May 9 onward, the country started easing the lockdown in place nationwide with various sectors and industries opening up in different provinces.

With input from APP