Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has affected all countries and has threatened not only
the health systems but overall governance structure of countries across
the globe. Countries with weak public health systems remained at risk of
substantial morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19. In Pakistan, due to
diversity in provincial public health preparedness capacities SARS-CoV-2
data collection and response was fragmented during the early phase of
the pandemic. To overcome this, the National CommandOperation Center
(NCOC) was established in March 2020 and has been now merged with NIH.
As of 7th February 2023, 1.6 million people have been infected with
COVID-19, with over 30 thousand deaths reported across the country. NIH
delivered awareness lectures on national media, point of entry,
hospitals, and public institutes, and conducted vaccination companies,
rapid response, surveillance, and diagnostics facilities at point of
entry. NIH provided leadership for enhancing the COVID-19 testing
capacities after acquiring SARS-CoV-2 detection capability in Feb 2020.
NIH-mandated training on bio risk management, SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics,
and laboratory assessment for a number of provincial public and private
laboratories. Besides developing national guidelines for testing and
strategies for molecular and antigen-based testing, the institute also
leads genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 covering all waves of
SARS-CoV-2 pandemic which has subsequently revealed early detection of
variants of concerns (VOCs). The NIH has submitted 3360 SARS-CoV-2
sequences to the GISAIDdatabase and organized an external quality
assessment (EQA) of molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 by distributing an
EQA panel to public and private laboratories.