ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, while defending the government's policy towards coronavirus, has claimed that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country declined by 38.74 percent during the first 15 days of July as compared with June.

Chairing a meeting at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) here on Thursday, he said necessary steps should be taken for managing the cattle markets during upcoming Eidul Azha.

He urged the provincial governments to ensure strict compliance of the SOPs and health guidelines in cattle markets. Moreover, the NCOC has warned the masses that wearing masks and compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) by the public were only measures to contain Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

The NCOC meeting took stock of the SOPs through digital analysis and cattle markets' management, and emphasized the need to ensure compliance of safety guidelines.

Umar said public health and safety was the government's top priority and any sort of complacency in following safety protocols would increase the risk of disease spread on Eidul Azha.

Umar, who is also head of the NCOC on coronavirus, rejected the perception that the decline in coronavirus cases was due to reduction in testing numbers. The minister informed that from June 1st to 15th, average tests were 23,403, and from July 1st to 15th average tests were 22,969, whereas, the average number of Covid-19 cases from June 1st to June 15th was 5,056 daily, while during the same period of current month of July, the average cases declined to 3,097 cases.

That decline, he said, in the number of positive cases was mainly due to the administrative measures taken to implement smart lockdown and implementation of safety guidelines.

Furthermore, the minister also attributed the reduction in Covid-19 cases to better and positive attitude of the people as well as effective administrative measures.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020