Chief Minister Sindh Decides To Close Shopping Malls, Restaurants, Govt Office, Public Parks To Contain Spread Of Corona

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday, in order to stop spread of Coronavirus through social contacts, has taken a drastic decision under which all the restaurants, shopping malls, food streets, Sea View, parks and government offices, except of essential services, would remain closed for next 15 days all over the Sindh

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Mar, 2020 ) :Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday, in order to stop spread of Coronavirus through social contacts, has taken a drastic decision under which all the restaurants, shopping malls, food streets, Sea View, parks and government offices, except of essential services, would remain closed for next 15 days all over the Sindh. However, restaurants would be allowed to offer home delivery services.

He took this decision while presiding over 20th meeting of Task Force on CoronaVirus here at CM House, said a statement.

The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, chief secretary, IGP Sindh, provincial secretaries, Commissioner Karachi, representatives of Corps 5, Rangers, FIA, Airport authorities, Civil Aviation, WHO, Aga Khan, and Indus hospital, Mushtaq Chapra, Faisal Edhi, Shahzad Roy and other concerned, said a statement.

The chief minister said that the Coronavirus has started spreading through social contacts in the city and other areas of the province. "If we fail to take strict measures in time it is bound to affect the entire province and then our health facilities would fall short to provide medical treat," he said and decided that all the sopping malls, restaurant, Sea View in Karachi and public parks, Karachi Electronic Market, would remain closed from Wednesday (March 18) for next 15 days all over Sindh. However, the grocery, milk, fish, chicken and meat and vegetables shops/stall would remain open as usual and even if they want they can operate round the clock, the chief minister said.

Shah also decided that all the government offices, except of essential services such as health, local government, water board etc would observe working days as usual from day from Thursday. The chief secretary would issue a clear notification.

Another important decision taken by the chief minister was to close inter-city bus service from Friday. "There are two days to the visitors to return their respective homes/cities and after that all the inter-city buses would be stopped from plying on their routes. However, intra-city bus service would continue as usual.

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 decided that the restaurants would not be allowed to offer dining service, however they could keep their home delivery services continue. The dining facilities would also remain suspended for 15 days in all star hotels and clubs but they would keep their room services on as usual.

The chief minister directed K-Electric and water board to keep proper supply of their utility so that people could stay 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 at Sukkur were also tested out of which 140 declared as negative while 134 have been diagnosed as positive. Total cases in Sindh has reached to 172. The results of 29 samples were still pending.

It was disclosed that there 31 scheduled flights to land at Jinnah Terminal, of them nine were cancelled and total 3922 passengers arrived. On screening of the passengers three were termed as suspects of Corona virus and they were sent to quarantine and their samples have been sent for lab tests.

The Commissioner Sukkur told the chief minister that 696 pilgrims have left Taftan for Sukkur on 17 buses on Tuesday at 6pm and they would reach Sukkur at around 12 noon 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 National Institute of Health, Islamabad for training.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to establish Corona virus 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, IGP Sindh Mushtaq Mahar and Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem have also announced to donate their one-month salaries in the fund. Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar also announced to donate his one month salary in 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-17 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 fund.

The corona virus fund would be under chief secretary Mumtaz Shah while other members would be secretary finance, 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 in the fund in cash so that proper care of the patients, suspects and people of Sindh at large could be made.

Earlier in the morning, Syed Murad Ali Shah chaired a meeting in which he decided to convert a block of Sukkur Labour Colony developed as Isolation Center into a full-fledged hospital to provide full medical facilities to the pilgrims living there.

The hospital would have a medical superintendent with all other medical, pediatrician, para-medical and janitorial staff. It would have OPD facility and proper ward equipped with necessary equipments.

The chief minister distributed health and pilgrims related assignments among the officers of health and home department. The Additional Chief Secretary Home Dr. Usman Chachar 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.

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.

He 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 difficult situation and we will have to further strengthen our health care system," he said.

Murad Ali Shah said that the people stuck up in Saudi Arabia, Iran, UK and others 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.