Pakistan’s sci-tech minister tackles COVID-19 impediments working from home

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan enforces lockdowns nationwide to curtail the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, the country’s science and technology minister said in his first online video interview on Monday that research is underway to locally produce COVID-19 test kits.
Fawad Chaudhry, who is in self-isolation at home after returning from a trip to the United States, spoke to Arab News live over a video link.
He said the Ministry of Science and Technology is encouraging research in the health sector to locally produce COVID-19 testing kits and disinfectants such as affordable hand sanitizers, amid their shortage in the Pakistani market.
“We have come up with our own (hand) sanitizer that will be available from this week in utility stores and everywhere else. Likewise, the testing kit we are coming up with is far cheaper than what we are using now,” Chaudhry said.
Chaudhry said he tested negative for the coronavirus upon arriving in Pakistan, but has been self-isolating as a precaution. According to him, Pakistan’s early restrictions on international travel were an important step in the government’s coronavirus response.
“I would say, Pakistan has done rather well by enforcing travel protocols much earlier than many other countries, and this is the one reason we have been able to counter this menace much more successfully than Europe and United States,” he said, referring to an initial lack of movement restrictions amid the outbreak in western countries. “Very recently, when I visited Canada and US, they had no protocols at the airport.”
Encouraging social distancing, the former information minister advised that journalists should take extreme precautions while on duty.
He expressed hope that other ministers will “follow the same protocol” of giving video interviews and hinted that 5G technology currently being tested by the country’s telecom sector may be introduced much sooner than expected.