Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Sunday sought feedback from provinces on compliance of Ramazan guidelines by masses as confirmed cases of coronavirus have risen to 13,165.

He was chairing the second meeting of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), which reviewed implementation of Ramazan guidelines, small and medium enterprises (SME) package, health situation and data integration.

Minister for Interior Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah apprised NCOC that population in urban areas needed to be continuously educated on the guidelines with doing no usual business during Ramazan.

However, he said that it was encouraging that the people in villages were observing the guidelines set by the federal government to curb the spread of the virus.

He said that political leadership particularly at district and union council levels has the most important role to educate the masses on the measure for their safety and well-being.

The forum deliberated upon the health situation and future course of action keeping in view likely projections about the spread of coronavirus in future.

A day earlier, the first meeting of the NCOC took place to discuss implementation of testing, trace-tracking strategy, stock position of utility stores, update on flights and development of medical equipment.

Provincial chief secretaries joined the session via video-link.