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Thursday, June 4, 2020

More Pakistani students set to return from Wuhan on June 5


By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The government has put all arrangements in place to bring back more Pakistani students from China on board national flag carrier. 

The PIA Special flight PK-8872 to leave Wuhan to Islamabad on June 5 to bring back home 300 students, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced. 

These students have remained stranded for five months in Wuhan, the epicenter of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

This is going to be the second batch of Pakistani students from Wuhan returning home. Earlier on May 18 the first batch of Pakistani students were repatriated by PIA’s special flight that departed from Tianhe Airport Wuhan on board 274 returning Pakistani students from Wuhan in Hubei province to Islamabad.

Inter-cropping technique can boost Pakistan agriculture


By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services) 

Thanks to Pakistani students introducing Chinese inter-cropping technology has become a possibility and it can helpful in boosting the country’s agriculture and food sector. 

The two Pakistani students, Muhammad Ali Raza and Sajad Hussain from the Sichuan Agricultural University, China, with the support of Professor Yang Wenyu and other agricultural experts, have introduced China’s maize-soybean strip inter-cropping technology to accelerate the crop yield. 

Prof Yang Wenyu, has emphasized that the technology will help Pakistan to promote agriculture export and improve its food security. In Pakistan, so far, four demonstrations have been arranged separately in Bahawalpur, Chakwal, Islamabad and Layyah. 

The Chinese professor has reckoned that the technology will contribute to the socio-economic development of Pakistan and farmers are welcome to use this technology free of cost. As agricultural cooperation was an important part of CPEC second phase, the Chinese inter-cropping technology will further boost this cooperation.

“This technology can boost maize yield as well as create an additional soybean harvest to reduce dependence of Pakistan’s soybean imports and improve the country’s food security,” Prof Wenyu added. 

The application of maize-soybean strip inter-cropping technology in Pakistan has theoretical and practical basis. Firstly, Pakistan has a large population while the area of arable land is limited. It has the demand to develop inter-cropping to grow two crops together. Secondly, Pakistan enjoys ample sunlight, which is a favorable natural condition for soybean’s growth. 

Moreover, in the inter-cropping fields, maize can shade soybean to reduce high average temperature’s impact, and nitrogen fixation by soybean can promote maize’s growth in return. 

By using inter-cropping technology, the yield of maize can reach 10,500 kg per hectare with an additional 1,350 to 1,650 kg/ha soybean production in Pakistan’s irrigated areas. 

In rain-fed areas, the production of maize and soybean can rise to 6,000 kg/ha and 4,500 to 1,500 kg/ha respectively. At present, maize is grown on an area of about 1.3 million hectares in Pakistan. In this way, the nation’s maize yield can be guaranteed and greatly increased. 

More importantly, Pakistani farmers can harvest considerable soybean. It will definitely generate considerable economic benefit for Pakistani people. 

There were some reservations about the technology’s performance because many local farmers hadn’t seen this kind of farming model before. 

“As long as they follow the required technical instructions to plant the two crops, this technology is sure to work out. Actually many countries are researching into inter-cropping. But across the globe our maize-soybean strip inter-cropping may be the only mature inter-cropping,” the Chinese expert explained. 

It should be noted that after 18 years of research and development, Prof Yang Wenyu’s maize-soybean strip inter-cropping technology was included in China’s No. 1 Central Document of top-priority by CPC Central Committee and the State Council of the People’s Republic of China to be promoted vigorously and widely in more regions of China. Besides Pakistan, it also has been introduced to Africa and Europe such as Ghana and Sweden.

Doctors demand greater resources at hospitals to deal with COVID-19


By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The leaders of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) at a press conference on June 3 at the Karachi Press Club, called the authorities to review the hospitals, particularly those located in Karachi where the COVID-19 load was extraordinarily high.

“The hospitals need ventilators and other medical facilities, improved security arrangements in the wake of increasing events of altercation and violence involving doctors, hospitals staff and patients attendants,” they pointed out, adding that the governments could not make preparations to combat the lethal virus despite passage of about four months, while the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was not up to the mark as far as fact and figures and its monitoring aspects were concerned.

According to them the new isolation facility at the Karachi Expo Centre was not being fully utilized. Those who spoke at the press conference included Dr Misbahul Aziz, Prof Dr Suhail Akhtar and Dr Jalal Akbar.

Coronavirus Update: Record infection, death in Sindh create fear, panic

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)



Amidst citizens’ concerns over the increasing pile of COVID-19 fatalities, the Sindh government on June 3 confirmed 29 more deaths of coronavirus patients across the province while the province’s one day new infection tally set a new record with 1,824 cases which was 27% higher than the preceding day’s 1,439 positive cases besides being the highest-ever single day figure. 

The data showed that, on an average, 25 patients died at hospitals and homes every day in the province during a period from May 28 to June 3. Sindh’s overall death tally stood at 555 on June 3.

The experts reached by PNFS, on the condition of anonymity, reflected that the government appeared to be working direction less in tackling the crisis. 

“The government side frequently blamed the masses for its failure to containing the diseases despite passage of over three months but did not speak a word about the hospitals where deaths of numerous COVID-19 patients are occurring every day,” a senior physician observed.

He explained that auditing, according to international norms, is a means for improving the quality of patient care and outcomes by systematic review of clinical management and comparing outcomes against criteria or accepted standards of care. In a mortality audit (or review) data are collected on deaths, and a qualitative and quantitative review is conducted.

A senior microbiologist commented that the hospitals were saying they were full which meant lack of required number of beds, ventilators, trained doctors, technicians while on the other hand, there was more mixing of population, more relaxation, more infection and more recovery. 

A philanthropist and a civil society activist appearing concerned over the increasing number of deaths and infections regretted that the policy makers have really messed up the country’s coronavirus management.

“There is neither any seriousness on the issue of increased deaths nor any convincing move to reduce the every day’s infection rate,’ the activist added. 

An official data, updated on June 2, revealed that of the 203 admissions, at the Aga Khan University Hospital, 48 patients were cured while 52 died due to the lethal disease. Similarly, at the Civil Hospital Karachi 37 were cured, 42 died, out of 183 admissions, at Indus Hospital 17 were cured while 43 died out of 89 admitted patients. 

At Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre 16 got cured, while 62 lost lives, out of 118 admissions; at Dow University hospital 38 were cured out of 197 admissions, while the death toll came as 64 there. 

Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation cured 34 of the 179 admissions, while 55 died; at Ziauddin Hospital 16 cured, 26 lost life, out of 67 admissions; at PNS Shifa 38 out of 153 admissions were cured, while 14 died; at LUMHS Hyderabad 30 cured while 12 died of the 80 admissions. 

The COVID-19 patients who died at Karachi, during last 24 hours, included 19 men of age ranging from 45 to 80 years and eight women of age ranging from 21 to 72 years. Shikarpur reported death of a woman aged 55 years, while a 55-year-old man died at Khairpur. 

Of the 1,824 new cases, detected during the last 24 hours ending at 9 am June 3 in the province, 1,487 belonged to Karachi, followed by 73 belonging to Hyderabad, 62 to Sukkur, 49 to Larkana, 36 to Ghotki, 24 to Shikarpur; 13 to Kashmore; 13 to Jamshoro; 10 to Kambar Shahdadkot. 

The Sindh Chief Minsiter, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his routine message said that 367 COVID-19 patients were in severe condition, out of which 56 were on ventilators. As many as 1152 patients were receiving treatment at hospitals across the province, while 15,070 were being treated at homes and another 111 were admitted at isolation centres.

In the meantime, an additional 42-bed high dependency unit (HDU) was made functional at the Civil Hospital Karachi, which already had 12 intensive care beds with ventilators, 55 HDU beds and 35 isolation beds. 

On the other hand a senior consultant physician at Aga Khan University Hospital called for improving the coordination between the COVID-19 hospitals. In a statement, Prof Javed Khan, consultant pulmonologist said that physicians were faced with a major problem in treating coronavirus patients. 

“Today I saw six patients in my clinic. Most were having mild symptoms so I advised them home quarantine, but two of the patients had COVID pneumonia with low oxygen saturation. At AKU we had no bed to admit. I rang three other hospitals but could not get connected,” he revealed. 

In a situation like this, according to Prof Javed Khan, there emerged a room for operating a central hot line, under the supervision of the Sindh health department, which can gather information from all private and public sector hospital and then provide this to any doctor who needed to find out where the bed or the ventilator was available. “It’s very difficult for a sick patient to go from one hospital to another and finding no bed available,” he highlighted.

China vows to share COVID-19 vaccine

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

China will definitely make available COVID-19 vaccine accessible and available to developing countries. China is among the most advance countries in vaccine R&D, a senior Chinese diplomat observed in a talk show.

“We want to share and are working with UK, US and other countries in this regard,” Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, responded at Sky News online live discussion on ‘The Pandemic: Our New World’ hosted by Dermot Murnghan. 

Ambassador Li said that he liked to share his views with the audience, stating that unity and cooperation will see the world through this pandemic and move forward. 

“China and the UK are partners in the fight against COVID-19,” he said adding that the cooperation between the two will benefit both the countries and the rest of the world. 

The CGTN, a Chinese news network, reported that fighting together, Chinese and UK scientists were working on game-changing coronavirus test kit. 

Regarding allegation that China might not tell the world about virus soon enough, Ambassador Liu made it clear that they had lost no time in informing the World Health Organization (WHO). 

“There was no cover-up and no delay to share information. China’s record is clean. It can stand the rest of time and history. We need to adopt a scientific approach about the origin of the virus,” he asserted.

On a question regarding situation in Hong Kong, Ambassador Li clarified that the national security legislation helped safeguard the high degree of autonomy in the Hong Kong SAR and the rights and freedom of the Hong Kong residents. 

“The UK politicians must recognize the fact that Hong Kong has returned to China, stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs in any form, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” he suggested.

Pakistan allows exports of PPE items


By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan’s federal cabinet has granted approval for exports of all items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Advisor on Commerce to Prime Minister, Abdul Razak Dawood, announced. 

The cabinet which met June 2, with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, has granted all items of PPE of any material, woven or non-woven, sanitizers have also been allowed,” Razak Dawood revealed in his twitter message. 

He further said that the ban on Tyvek suits, N95 masks and surgical masks, however, will remain in place. 

The exporters have been advised to go ahead with full speed and capture a good share of the world market, he added.