Pakistan to import 6,000 tons of oxygen amid surge in COVID-19 cases

A vendor sits on his shop while selling medical oxygen in Rawalpindi on June 23, 2020. (AFP/File)

• The country’s planning minister says the government built the capacity of its health sector by increasing oxygen production and number of hospital beds
• Asad Umar urges people to take necessary precautions since the government cannot ‘allow the disease to spread rapidly’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s planning minister Asad Umar announced on Friday that the government had decided to import 6,000 tons of oxygen to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
In his Twitter posts, Umar praised the government’s “proactive decision making,” saying it helped Pakistan “avoid the kind of scenes being witnessed in some other countries.”
According to official statistics, the country recorded 5,112 new cases of the coronavirus infections with 131 related deaths in the last 24 hours.
The government has said that Pakistan is experiencing the third wave of the pandemic, warning that the country is consuming more than 90 percent of the oxygen it produces as hospitals have run out of space due to the surge in the viral infection.
“Total number of critical care covid patients on oxygen reach 5,360 yesterday,” Umar said in a tweet. “This is 57% more than the peak last June.”
He added that the country had managed to deal with the situation since it had enhanced the capacity of its health sector and increased oxygen production and number of hospital beds.
However, Umar maintained it was vital to adopt health safety measures, adding that the next few weeks were critical.
“No system can cope if we allow the disease to spread rapidly,” he said.
Pakistan has already announced restrictions on tourism and intercity transport to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease during the Eid holidays.