LAHORE: Governor Chaudhry Sarwar has inaugurated a telemedicine centre at the Punjab University Teaching Hospital on Saturday.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad, Punjab Corona Response Team member and PU telemedicine centre focal person Dr Zeeshan Danish, Chief Medical Officer Dr Muhammad Akram, Dr Tahseen Zameer and other doctors were present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sarwar said telemedicine centres had received 10,000 calls so far where 1,500 doctors had offered their services voluntarily. He made it clear that the government did not want the persons suffering from cough, headache, temperature etc to visit hospitals where coronavirus patients were being treated. He said the telemedicine centres had been opened to control coronavirus. He urged the people not to be panicky but adopt precautionary measures while staying at home.

Says govt doesn’t want general patients to visit coronavirus hospitals

The governor stressed the need to learn a lesson from China, Italy, the UK and other countries where coronavirus wreaked havoc as the people had not taken it seriously. He urged the people to act as responsible citizens as their right response was the most important way to cope with the virus.

Mr Sarwar said the government was concerned for the doctors, nurses, paramedics, Rescue 1122 staff, as well as the journalists working close to the Covid-19 patients. He said the government was making efforts to provide ration to daily-wage workers.

Meanwhile, PU VC Niaz Ahmad issued instructions for dedicating different laboratories of the university for coronavirus tests on an emergency basis.

During a visit to the laboratories of the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) and Centre for Applied Molecular Biology and directed the officials concerned to shift the required equipment to the laboratories having specific safety standards in order to carry out tests of coronavirus. He said they would bear the expense of first 1,000 tests of suspected patients of coronavirus, which would be referred by the Punjab Health Department.

VC Ahmad said that the country was facing critical circumstances and PU would not let the country as well as the nation down.

Later, Dr Idrees Ahmad of the university briefed the PU VC on the diagnostic kit to test coronavirus patients in a different lab and showed him the samples of already prepared kits. He said that after receiving the raw material, the production of coronavirus diagnostic kits would be started at the massive level. He said the tests of coronavirus suspects referred by the health department would be conducted at the dedicated laboratories. He said he would also give training to others so that results of coronavirus tests could be reported accurately.

MoU: The University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore and Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP) on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to conduct paperless Engineering College Admission Test (ECAT) 2020.

UET Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Syed Mansoor Sarwar and VUP Rector Naeem Tariq were present at the MoU ceremony held at VC’s Office where VUP Controller of Examination Dr Faisal Tehseen Shah signed the document.

Under the agreement, a computer-based combined entry test 2020 would be conducted and VUP would also collaborate with the UET to facilitate the students with provision of state-of-the-art computer labs for the entrance test 2020. Both institutions agreed to exchange relevant technical information and provide support to each other in the field of education.

Prof Sarwar said use of the latest technology would bring about innovation and it would also save the resources.

PITB: The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the federal government educational institutions (FGEIs) in Cantonments and Garrisons have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a human resource management information system (HRMIS)

There are 355 educational institutions in Cantonments and Garrisons having 185,000 students and 15,000 employees. The HRMIS would be developed to improve their efficiency through the automation of manual and repetitive tasks.

The MoU was signed by PITB Chairman Azfar Manzoor and Educational Institutions Director General Maj Gen Muhammad Asghar. DG IT Operations Faisal Yousuf, Director FGEIs Brigadier Abdul Hameed and senior officers were present in the ceremony.

Mr Manzoor said the system was being developed to maintain daily school activities at the federal level and the PITB would provide full technical support to the FGEIs.

Mr Asghar said the technology-based solution would not only maintain the updated and accurate electronic repository of teaching and non-teaching staff’s personal files records but would also manage the transfer and posting records, inquiry and training details, evaluations, student registration, online admissions, learning management and track of attendance records as well.

Mr Yousuf said under the system, all documents and information would be stored in the central place to preserve all teachers’ records.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2020