Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said 6,000 people will be tested everyday for the novel coronavirus from Sunday.
While addressing a news conference on Saturday, CM Buzdar said the testing capacity has been increased after the number of BSL-3 labs was raised to eight. It took Rs620 million to make them operational.
The BSL-3 lab is a containment laboratory designed for work with Risk Group 2 and 3 of microorganisms that pose an increased risk of aerosol spread, according to the WHO.
Speaking about the protest of coronavirus patients at the Lahore’s Expo Field Hospital, the chief minister assured that he’s looking into the matter. The protesters had complained that the services being provided at the facility were inadequate and not up to basic health standards.
“An inquiry has been ordered on the complaint of the passengers who are being kept there,” the chief minister said.
“In the coming days, we will also recommend the federal government to approve declaring homes of some COVID-19 patients quarantine centres.”
He said smart sampling will begin in six cities: Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujrat, Gujrwanwala and Faisalabad. Smart sampling is collecting samples only from a certain number of randomly selected households.
According to the plan, people will be divided under different categories – media workers, law enforcers, pregnant women admitted in hospitals, government workers at management offices, Tuberculosis and AIDS patients, health workers and prisoners in jails. These people will then be tested for COVID-19.
The CM claimed that the province has enough protective equipment for every healthcare worker.
“We have asked the Centre’s to reopen power loom, construction, iron, steel and other industries that have labour colonies for their workers,” he added.
“We are in talks with the federal government for reopening markets in alternative days.”
