Pakistan says it has successfully manufactured inexpensive ventilators that would soon be supplied to the local market amid coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 200,000 people and claimed thousands of lives.
Ventilators are expensive equipment and currently, hospitals have not enough supplies to deal with the soaring number of COVID-19 patients.
The country set about the search for cheap ventilators a couple of months ago, and also had clinical trials of the locally manufactured equipment.
Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Husain says the first batch of ventilators manufactured locally would be delivered to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) next week for processing its production and distribution.
In a video statement on Sunday, he said that Pakistan has joined the ranks of those few countries in the world which are producing their own ventilators.
A ventilator is a “complicated machine and not a lot of countries in the world have the capacity to make this”.
An imported ventilator costs Pakistan Rs 3.5 million (around $30,000) while the cost of local equipment will be just Rs 0.3 million (around $2000), according to manufacturing experts.
The minister hoped that the country would be able to meet its own need for ventilators and even be able to export the equipment.
“When the first Covid-19 case was recorded on February 26, we were not producing anything. Within a few months, we have become capable of producing our own equipment,” he said, congratulating the Pakistan Engineering Council, National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) and scientists and technicians.
Chaudhry also tweeted earlier in the day, announcing that eight to 0 ventilators manufactured in the first batch will be delivered to the NDMA.
He said the next three designs are also in their final stages, after which Pakistan will be among the few countries in the world that manufacture complex medical machines, in accordance with European Union (EU) standards.
Besides ventilators, Pakistan has lately become self-sufficient in the production of face masks to meet its domestic needs besides making exports to Western countries.
“Pakistani exporters have received large orders of face masks from the United States, Canada and Europe,” says Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood.
He congratulated the exporters.
“I have received information that some exporters have obtained large orders for face masks from US, Canada and Europe. This is major breakthrough and I congratulate them for this achievement,” he said.
