ISLAMABAD: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and a renowned philanthropist, recently visited Pakistan for the first time and met with Prime Minister Imran Khan. He was informed of efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and eradicate poliovirus from the country.
Gates attended a National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) session and met Planning Minister and NCOC Chief Asad Umar.
Gates was briefed on the NCOC's performance, the coronavirus condition in the country, and systematic efforts to manage it with non-pharmaceutical interventions, according to a statement from the NCOC.
The statement added that he was briefed about genome sequencing and coronavirus variants detected in Pakistan.
"Gates appreciated Pakistan's success against COVID-19 despite resource constraints and introducing excellent initiatives and measures for public health safety," according to the statement.
Gates also talked about the pandemic and efforts to tackle it through vaccination. He took an interest in various initiatives by the NCOC, particularly smart lockdown and micro-smart lockdown strategy enforcement measures and Pakistan's vaccine administration regime. Umar later tweeted about hosting Gates at the NCOC.
The Microsoft founder was appreciative of the COVID response effort in Pakistan, Umar concluded his post. The philanthropist also visited the anti-polio programme where Programme Chief Shehzad Baig briefed him about polio prevention measures in the country.