Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Friday directed the provinces to share their latest COVID-19 combating efforts and latest information about the pandemic in their respective areas in the Resource Management (RMS) to facilitate people.
Chairing a meeting at National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to review the COVID-19 situation, he said that the RMS was effectively providing latest information regarding COVID-19 to four provinces including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). RMS also provides latest information about the availability of beds, ventilators and other facilities available in hospitals. The representatives of provinces, AJK, GB and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) expressed satisfaction over the workings of RMS. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yousaf briefed the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) about the latest plan of bringing back stranded Pakistanis and testing plans of the suspected patients.
Earlier the NCOC was briefed about the launching of RMS.
The meeting was attended by Interior minister Brig Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Special Assistance to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza, Prime Minister’s focal person on COVID-19 Dr Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Digital Pakistan Tania Aidrus, and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yousaf. High ranking officials of provinces including Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) also participated.
Earlier, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Friday briefed all the provinces including Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on centralized Resource Management System (RMS) which would be launched tomorrow.
The NCOC meeting was headed Director Operations and Plans NCOC Major General Asif Mehmood Goraya.
Speaking on the occasion, Major General Goraya said there was need to focus on hospital data authenticity as its data ingestion had different issues in the provinces. He said there was also disparity in the data of number of tests conducted per day and contact tracing of affected COVID-19 patients.
Community mobilization, he said, had brought positive impacts and all stakeholders were also involved in the process.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) National Information Technology Board (NITB) Shabahat Ali Shah said all of the provinces had worked hard to update the RMS system. There were discrepancies in the data received from Sindh where the information shared should be analyzed by the data operators/providers for reducing anomalies, he added.
The provincial representatives also apprised the forum on the issues faced by their administrations regarding RMS and exchanged their feedback on the system. NCOC official also told the forum that globally the only way adopted to fight COVID-19 was test, track and quarantine (TTQ) strategy and smart lockdown. He mentioned that different additional measures were also adopted along with TTQ strategy to mitigate the risk where contact tracing was also necessary.
