ISLAMABAD:
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for a day-long visit and met Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Gates, who is also the co-chairman of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is on his first-ever visit to the country.
He visited the anti-polio programme, where he was briefed by the programme’s chief Dr Shehzad Baig and was informed of Covid-19 and polio prevention measures being taken in the country.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan took to his official Twitter handle to welcome Gates to Pakistan.
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The SAPM stated that Gates’s planned engagements also include meeting President Arif Alvi and a review of the Ehsaas programme
During his visit to the country’s nerve centre for Covid-19 response – the NCOC – Gates met the body’s head Asad Umar and SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan.
Gates, along with his delegation, attended the NCOC’s morning session and were apprised about the forum’s role , methodology, achievements since the start of the pandemic and the current situation in the country, including various NPIs enforced by the NCOC to control the virus’ spread.
“A comprehensive review of Pakistan’s efforts against Covid-19 was presented to visiting delegation. The visiting delegation was also briefed on genome sequencing (prevalence of various variants in the country ),” said a statement.
Gates, according to the to NCOC statement, took keen interest on various initiatives by the NCOC particularly the smart lock down and micro smart lock down strategy used by the forum.
The philanthropist also shared his views on Covid-19 particularly vaccination drive.
During the visit, Umar acknowledged the efforts of Gates and his foundation to support Covid-19 initiatives in Pakistan. Gates appreciated Pakistan’s success against Covid-19 despite resource constraints and introducing excellent initiatives and measures for public health safety.
Earlier in January, Gates and the premier discussed matters of shared concern including polio eradication in Pakistan and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The premier had expressed appreciation for the work of the Gates Foundation in fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world.
PM Imran had reaffirmed that eradication of polio from Pakistan remains a key priority of the government and efforts are underway to intensify the anti-polio campaign across the country.
