In a move to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, shopping malls, restaurants, public parks and electronics markets will remain closed all over Sindh from Wednesday (March 18) for the next 15 days. However, grocery shops, milk shops, fish, chicken and meat shops, vegetable shops and stalls will remain open as usual, and if they want to they could even operate round the clock. Moreover, all the government offices, except those providing essential services such as health, local government, water board etc, will also be closed from Friday for the next 15 days. This was stated by the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, after a meeting at the CM House here on Tuesday.
Another important decision taken by the chief minister was to terminate the inter-city bus service from Friday. "There are two days for the visitors to return to their respective homes/cities. After that all the inter-city buses would be stopped from plying their routes. However, intra-city bus service would continue as usual," said the chief minister.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, chief secretary, IG Sindh, provincial secretaries, commissioner Karachi, representatives of Corps 5, Rangers, FIA, Airport authorities, Civil Aviation, WHO, representatives Aga Khan Hospital and the Indus hospital, Mushtaq Chapra, Faisal Edhi, Shahzad Roy and other concerned.
The chief minister said that the coronavirous had started spreading through social contacts in the city and other areas of the province. "If we fail to take strict measures on time it is bound to affect the entire province of Sindh, and then our health facilities would fall short of providing medical treatment to all the patients," he said.
The hospitals would continue functioning as usual, however their OPDs would remain closed for 15 days. The hospitals would keep their emergencies open round the clock. The chief minister said that the restaurants could continue to offer home delivery services.
The dining in facilities would also remain suspended for 15 days in all the five-star hotels but their room services would remain on as usual. The chief minister directed K-Electric and the water board to keep proper supply of their utilities so that the people could stay at their homes easily.
Coronavirus cases: The chief minister was told that in Karachi total 501 tests were conducted, of them 463 turned out to be negative while 38 diagnosed as positive. 274 samples of pilgrims living at Sukkur were also tested out of which 140 declared as negative while 134 has been diagnosed as positive. In this way total cases in Sindh has reached 172. The results of 29 samples were still pending.
It was disclosed that there were 31 scheduled flights to land at Karachi airport, of them nine were cancelled, and a total of 3,922 passengers arrived. On screening of the passengers three were termed as suspects of coronavirus and they were sent to quarantine and their samples have been sent for lab tests.
696 pilgrims leave for Sukkur: The Commissioner Sukkur told the chief minister that 696 pilgrims would reach Sukkur on Wednesday. The chief minister directed the commissioner to make arrangements for their residence, medical check up and lab tests.
On the instructions of the chief minister three health officers have been deployed at divisional level for coordination and implementation of government decisions at divisional level. He directed district administration to identify newly constructed hospitals, RHC, THQ hospitals as isolation centers.
He also directed the health department to send three lab technicians to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, for training. Coronavirus fund: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to establish Coronavirus Relief Fund of Rs 3 billion in which he has announced to donate one-month salary.
Following the chief minister all the cabinet members, advisors and special assistants to CM, chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Police Mushtaq Maher and Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem have also announced to donate their one-month salaries to the fund. Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar also announced to donate his one month salary to the fund.
The chief minister also announced that all the government officers of grade BPS-21 would donate half of their salary while the employees of grade BPS-1 to 20 would contribute 10 percent salary while employees from grade BPS-1 to grade 16 would contribute 5 percent salary. The chief minister also approved transfer of Rs 1 billion from relief fund into the coronovirus fund.
The coronavirus fund would be under chief secretary Mumtaz Shah while other members would be secretary finance from government side, Dr Abdul Bari of Indus Hospital, Mushtaq Chapra and Faisal Edhi would be private members. The funds would be used by the committee in a transparent way. The secretary Finance and a private member would operate the account with their joint signatures.
The chief minister appealed to the philanthropists, industrialists and well off to donate to the fund in cash and kind so that proper care of the patients and people of Sindh at large could be made smoothly.
Meeting regarding health: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday morning chaired a meeting in which he decided to convert a block of Sukkur Labour Colony to be developed as a full-fledged hospital to provide full medical facilities to the pilgrims living there.
The chief minister distributed health and pilgrims related assignments among the officers of health and Home department. The Adl Chief Secretary Home Dr Usman Chachar was assigned to coordinate with airport authorities, immigration, federal government and other provinces. Similarly, Secretary Irrigation Dr Saeed Mangnijo assigned the task to look after the Sukkur Isolation center and coordinate between the different hospitals of the division for shifting of patients or provision of medicines etc.
Additional Secretary Health Fayaz Abbasi has been assigned to coordinate for movement of the patients from one hospital to another.
Distribution of soaps: The chief minister also directed chief secretary to provide one million soaps to the union councils of rural areas for onward distribution among the villagers to wash their hands. He urged the chief secretary to talk to soap companies and get the soaps on subsidy.
Functionalization of hospitals: The chief minister directed the chief secretary to take necessary measures for functionalizing the newly constructed hospitals almost in all the districts headquarters and taluka headquarters. "This is a difficult situation and we will have to further strengthen our healthcare system," he said.
Shah said that the people stuck in Saudi Arabia, Iran, UK and other countries were set to return, therefore newly constructed labour colonies at Nooriabad, Kotri, Hyderabad and Shaheed Benazirabad should be developed as isolation centers on Sukkur model.
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