A 1,000-bed field hospital for COVID-19 patients has been set up at the Expo Centre in Lahore.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar inaugurated the hospital on Wednesday.

Lahore’s Expo Centre was converted into a field hospital in nine days, the government of Punjab said in a tweet. The hospital has an ICU and offers rescue service too. People have been encouraged to bring coronavirus patients to this hospital.

The chief minister had finalised the decision to establish the hospital during a cabinet meeting on March 20. “We are constantly monitoring the situation and hope it improves soon,” said CM Buzdar at the inauguration ceremony. He said that training of healthcare providers has been completed and the government has provided testing kits to relevant hospitals.

“We distributed money to 170,000 people today to provide some relief during the coronavirus outbreak,” he added.

Also, the provincial government has launched the Punjab Chief Minister’s Insaf Assistance Package to provide assistance to needy and deserving segments of the society amid the crisis-like situation created in the country by the coronavirus outbreak.

As many as 2.5 million deserving families will benefit from this Rs10 billion package and each family will receive a cash assistance of Rs4,000. The provincial government said it would take more steps to provide maximum possible facilities to deserving people. The government urged people to cooperate with the administration and authorities engaged in relief efforts.