AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.4%)
AIRLINK 129.53 Decreased By ▼ -2.20 (-1.67%)
BOP 6.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.15%)
CNERGY 4.63 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (3.58%)
DCL 8.94 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.36%)
DFML 41.69 Increased By ▲ 1.08 (2.66%)
DGKC 83.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-0.37%)
FCCL 32.77 Increased By ▲ 0.43 (1.33%)
FFBL 75.47 Increased By ▲ 6.86 (10%)
FFL 11.47 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.06%)
HUBC 110.55 Decreased By ▼ -1.21 (-1.08%)
HUMNL 14.56 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (1.75%)
KEL 5.39 Increased By ▲ 0.17 (3.26%)
KOSM 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.58 (-6.46%)
MLCF 39.79 Increased By ▲ 0.36 (0.91%)
NBP 60.29 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
OGDC 199.66 Increased By ▲ 4.72 (2.42%)
PAEL 26.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.15%)
PIBTL 7.66 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.41%)
PPL 157.92 Increased By ▲ 2.15 (1.38%)
PRL 26.73 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.19%)
PTC 18.46 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (0.87%)
SEARL 82.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.58 (-0.7%)
TELE 8.31 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.97%)
TOMCL 34.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.12%)
TPLP 9.06 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (2.84%)
TREET 17.47 Increased By ▲ 0.77 (4.61%)
TRG 61.32 Decreased By ▼ -1.13 (-1.81%)
UNITY 27.43 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.04%)
WTL 1.38 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (7.81%)
BR100 10,407 Increased By 220 (2.16%)
BR30 31,713 Increased By 377.1 (1.2%)
KSE100 97,328 Increased By 1781.9 (1.86%)
KSE30 30,192 Increased By 614.4 (2.08%)

The National Coordination Committee on Coronavirus, constituted by the National Security Committee, held its first meeting Saturday and reviewed the measures to ensure implementation on the National Action Plan to prevent spread of COVID-19.

The meeting held under the chairmanship of its convener Dr Zafar Mirza, prime minister's special assistant on national health services, was attended by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major-General Babar Iftikhar and provincial chief ministers through video link.

Other participants included Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yusuf, secretaries Health, Finance, Information and Broadcasting, and the NDMA chairman. The meeting reaffirmed the government's commitment to utilize all resources to protect people from the virus. The meeting was informed that provinces had started implementing the decisions made in the NSC meeting Friday.

Addressing the meeting, Dr Mirza said coronavirus was a national challenge and implementation of the joint National Action Plan was being ensured to cope with the situation. The meeting overviewed the implementation of the decisions taken by the NSC in which it was decided that entire western border with Iran and Afghanistan would be closed for two weeks, closure of all educational/technical institutions, public and private, at all levels for three weeks, limiting all international flights only to three [Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore] airports, reinforcement of screening and administrative measures at all sea ports, and others.

Dr Mirza said that the confirmed coronavirus cases were 29 so far in Pakistan. However, he said that the people need not to create panic and emphasized the need for taking precautionary measures with responsibility to cope with the spread of the virus. He said that all available resources were being utilized for the safety and wellbeing of the people.

He said that all the entry points across the country were being strictly monitored and the screening system was further being strengthened to ensure that no infected case enters into the country. He said that isolation centers had been set up at the hospitals across the county and facilities were also being extended to Gilgit-Baltistan.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that an effective and comprehensive strategy had been devised together with the provinces to stop the virus turn into an epidemic in the country. She said that the safety and wellbeing of the people was the top-most priority of the government. She said that the National Coordination Committee would continue to monitor and review the situation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

Comments

Comments are closed.