The government is finalizing a $600 million emergency package to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak across the country. This was stated by the federal minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar on Thursday.
The minister tweeted,
The minister said that emergency funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are also being made available for NDMA. This is in addition to funds already made available by finance division for immediate use by the authority. Reallocations from foreign-funded projects are also being diverted towards it.
ALSO READ
Jump in Pakistan’s COVID-19 Tally Continues as It Struggles to Fight the Pandemic
“I would like to thank the People’s Republic of China for providing grant assistance of USD 4 million along with 300,000 medical face masks, 10 ventilators and other equipment. They have also undertaken to arrange for much greater number of ventilators”, Azhar added.
The government has decided reallocation of non-utilized funds and to seeks fresh funds from multilateral agencies to deploy towards Coronavirus (Corvid-19) prevention across the country, the minister added. “We aim to make these funds available to relevant departments by next week,” he added.
He further said that the finance division is also working in close coordination with the advisor on health for the provision of local funds. The provinces have also been asked to keep close coordination with their respective health departments for the provision of resources.
