Responding to an increasing demand for ventilators in the face of fast-spreading coronavirus, Pakistan‘s auto-part manufacturers have started work on local production of the medical equipment.
“We have designed the ventilator, and will come up with a prototype within weeks,” says Sikandar Mustafa Khan, Chairman Millat Tractors Limited, a company that is the major producer of tractors and other agricultural equipment in Pakistan.
He is heading the team, presently working on the fabrication of the life-saving equipment that has attained much significance over the last three months as COVID-19 rages around the globe and hospital demands for ventilators soar.
The umbrella body of Pakistan;s leading auto-parts manufacturers, PAAPAM had offered the government to make the expensive and sophisticated equipment ventilators locally.
An imported ventilator costs Rs 3.5 million (around $30,000) while the cost of local equipment will be just Rs 0.3 million (around $2000).
A Bird VIP brand infant ventilator Credit: Brian Hall / Public domain
“If we can produce parts of cars, tractors, why not ventilators,” says Almas Hyder, a leading autoparts maker and former President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
Currently, Pakistan has about 2000 ventilators, with around 1300 ventilators in Punjab, 50 working ventilators in Balochistan, more than 500 in Sindh and 150 ventilators in Khyber Pakthunkhuwa, not enough to meet the requirements of 220 million population of the country facing health emergency due to COVID-19 Pandemic.
The spread of the COVID-19 has forced even the most developed countries like the United States to engage car manufacturers like General Motors to produce ventilators.
The Pakistani government, while expressing gratitude to the industrialists , has hoped that the country would soon have its indigenous ventilators as trials of three designs of locally developed breathing equipment have entered the final verification stage.
Pak Engineering Council received 48 designs of ventilators three approved and now sent to DRAP for final approvals,trials of these ventilators ll be conducted in four hospitals once approved ll go for commercial manufacturing,indigenous Ventilators ll be far cheaper https://t.co/Hh1Fv67qgS
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 1, 2020
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain in a tweet said that Pak Engineering Council received 48 designs of ventilators and three of them have been approved.
He added that the designs have been sent to the Drug Regulatory Authority for further approval, adding that the trials of these ventilators will be conducted in four hospitals.
The minister further said that Pakistan will start commercial manufacturing of indigenous ventilators, which will be far less expensive, after getting the DRAP’s nod.
The demand of the ventilators is on rise not only in Pakistan but across the world due to the coronavirus outbreak, a disease that affects respiratory system.
In an alarming increase, the number of total coronavirus cases surged to 2037 in Pakistan on Wednesday while 26 people died due to the virus.
A slight increase was witnessed in number of recovered patients as it stands at 58 while 10 people are said to be in critical situation.
