PM to chair NCC meeting on COVID-19 today

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will preside over a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on COVID-19 today.

The meeting will consider relief package for sectors that were closed due to the second wave of the pandemic. National Command and Operations Centre and health officials are expected to attend the meeting.

The prime minister will be briefed on the reasons that had led to the Peshawar incident and the coronavirus’s spread in the country. Important decisions, including imposing smart lockdowns would be taken.

The premier called a National Coordination Committee meeting on coronavirus, after noting with concern the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) incident that took the lives of six people.

According to the preliminary report prepared by a three-member committee and submitted today, the on-duty manager of the services line told the committee that on the day of the incident he received a call from the hospital’s operation theatre regarding low oxygen pressure.

On receiving the complaint, he called the oxygen plant’s manager, who did not receive his phone, after which the former visited the plant in person and found that the two officials, who were supposed to be on duty, were absent. The oxygen plant pressure at that moment was zero, the report said.

At the time, about 90 patients were in the coronavirus isolation ward, out of which 20 were on Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP), two on ventilators and the rest were being supplied with oxygen through masks.

Due to the shortage in oxygen supply, the hospital management shifted 13 patients to the Accident and Emergency Department where “limited supply in the form of the manifold was available”. The rest of the patients were provided oxygen through cylinders, which were in limited supply.

According to the services line manager, the oxygen plant assistant “failed to perform his duty as he is responsible for the oxygen plant and has a liaison with the supplier”.