The total number of critical patients on ventilators in Pakistan has risen to 5,360, about 57 per cent higher than the peak time of the disease in June last year, chairman of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.
Despite the spike in the disease and critical cases, the country's healthcare system has managed to cope with the situation by proactively building the capacity of the entire system from oxygen production to beds, NCOC Chairman Asad Umar said on Friday.
The total oxygen production operational capacity in Pakistan last year was 487 tons per day which had been increased to 798 tons while oxygen production had gone up from 465 tons per day last June to 725 tons currently, he said in a series of tweets.
The minister said that despite having more than 2,000 additional COVID-19 patients on oxygen compared to last June peak, the tight oxygen supply situation that was seen last year had not been created now.
Continuing to build capacity, he said the NCOC decided to import 6,000 tons of oxygen, 5,000 cylinders, and 20 cryogenic tanks.
He noted that the bedrock of this proactive decision-making had been a data-based forward-looking analytical approach, nationally coordinated effort with a whole of the nation approach, and hard work of dedicated teams who continued to steer efforts through this difficult challenge.
"However, the challenge is not over and in fact is continuing to increase. The need for precautions and following Standard Operating Procedures is vital at this point in time. The next few weeks are critical. No system can cope if we allow the disease to spread rapidly," he added.
Pakistan is currently grappling with a third wave of COVID-19 with a national positivity ratio of over 10 per cent.
According to the NCOC, a total of 820,823 cases of the virus have been detected in the country, out of which 17,811 died and 711,465 others recovered.
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