ISLAMABAD, APR 10 (DNA) – National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) brings its procured consignment of medical goods and protective equipment from China through Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft.

According to NDMA spokesperson, this cache of goods was not the aid from China rather these goods were purchased by NDMA to expand the health sector’s capacity to deal with the Corona virus pandemic.

The equipment was purchased through a $50 million grant from the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and the Asian Development Bank, he added.

The goods brought from China included 2000 testing kits, 50 mobile X-ray machines, 1 million KN-95 masks, 5 million medical masks and 10,000 surgical gowns.

“Other goods have also been purchased by NDMA which would arrive in Pakistan by next coming air planes including screening kits, ICU ventilators,” he said.

Considering the availability of limited health management resources in the country to manage growing number of cases every day, Government of Pakistan (GoP) requested the International Development Partners (Donors) to help in bridging the financial gap to procure medical and health equipment to respond efficiently to control the spread of the virus.

NDRMF was the first donor to approve grant financing to NDMA in less than 24 hours to support Government’s response.

It approved project aimed to ‘Enhance Pakistan’s Capacity for Preparedness and Response for Covid-19’ with total project cost of PKR 7,899.999 Million (US $ 50.0 million), submitted by NDMA with the assistance of M/o NHRS&C.

Out of the said financial commitment NDRMF deposited PKR.3, 200,002,916 (US $ 20 Million) in the Consolidated (Non-Food) Account No. 1 of the GoP through Federal Treasury Office, (within 24 hours), from the profits that had been accrued from its Endowment Fund, which facilitated in timely procurements of necessary medical & health equipment from abroad

Asian Development Bank also re-appropriated additional 30M US$ from the loan granted to NDRMF, by putting on hold its third batch of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) projects

Furthermore, NDMA being the lead operational agency to coordinate Covid-19 response will be responsible for the overall management of project, including procurement, quality assurance, inventory and supply chain management and Financial & Audit arrangements. To ensure the technical and other requirements NDMA will work in close coordination with M/o NHSRC and other stakeholders.

The challenge at present is to ensure containment of virus from spreading. Government is making all possible efforts to mobilize resources to cater for the situation. In this regard, NDRMF has offered all out support to GoP to cope with the pandemic situation.

In addition to US$50 million NDRMF has been able to arrange an additional US$ 60million under its Pakistan Hydro Met and Ecosystem Restoration Services Project (PHERSP) with a new component of ‘Enhancing Resilience to Climate Change Impacts and Health Shocks’.

This will allow NDRMF to make cumulative contribution of US$110million from its project resources. Additionally NDRMF is preparing another project worth 100 Mn USD to be funded by ADB. = DNA

==================================