PESHAWAR: Dr Palitha Mahipala, the World Health Organisation representative in Pakistan, has donated two latest PCR machines to the health department as part of strategy to improve testing capacity for Covid-19 of the government and deal with the pandemic effectively.

He met with Health Minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra and discussed with him matter regarding the province’s response to the coronavirus infection and pledged to continue support to enable the people to stay safe from the infection.

Dr Mahipala also stressed the need for infection control measures at the hospitals and said that the world health agency had already taken steps to disinfect the hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides training of staff in swab collection and management of Covid-19 patients, according to a statement.

He said that testing played an important role in identification of patients and more testing would be continued to isolate the positive patients for their better management and at the same time protecting the general population from being infected with the virus.

Flanked by WHO provincial chief Dr Saeed Akbar Khan, Dr Mahipala also visited the Directorate General Health Services offices where he discussed in details the situation with regard to Covid-19 and the measures being taken to respond to the pandemic.

On the occasion, Dr Niaz Mohammad, the director general health services, briefed the WHO chief about the current situation of Covid-19 and the government’s response and activates. The WHO representative handed over 500 personal protective kits, 500 bottles hand sanitizers, 500 surgical face masks, 500 N-95 masks and 5000-piece shoe-covers to the department.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020