ISLAMABAD - A special meeting at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), chaired by the Minister for Planning Development Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, here on Wednesday was apprised about the situation of COVID-19 pandemic in the country and steps taken to contain it.
The forum was briefed that over one million people are restricted under smart lockdown across the country after trace, test and quarantine (TTQ) Strategy implementation in the high risk areas with large number of corona positive cases. The forum during the meeting also reviewed the ramp up plan for increasing testing capacity, media communication strategy for next 6 weeks and Epidemic Curve Chart whereas the forum also discussed the arrangements regarding Eid-ul-Azha.
The forum was briefed that during last 24 hours more than 9827 violations of health guidelines/instructions were observed across Pakistan.
According to NCOC, more than 963 markets and shops, 18 industries and 1186 transport vehicles were cautioned, fined sensitized and sealed. It added that basing on test, trace and quarantine (TTQ) strategy, smart lockdown was being observed as follow: Punjab with 904 lockdowns (920,768 population), Sindh with 26 lockdowns (150,513 population), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 572 lockdowns (67,000 population), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with 29 lockdowns (670,000 population), ICT with 10 lockdowns (60,000 population) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) with 5 lockdowns (15,000 population).
One million people restricted under smart lockdown: NCOC
In line with the Prime Minister’s instructions for compliance to health guidelines and instructions particularly working places, industrial sector, transport, markets and shops whereas NCOC daily morning situational brief was in progress. To ensure the implementation of the health guidelines and instructions and preventive measures including wearing of face mask in public as per WHO new guidelines on the subject particular special teams were operating all across the country to ensure that the standard operating procedures (SOPs) were being implemented. The details of violations of health guidelines across Pakistan and enforcement measures as under as in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 804 Violations were noted and sealed around 93 shops and markets and 333 Transport vehicles were fined.
In Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), around 170 violations were noted whereas 27 markets and shops were sealed and 29 transport vehicles were fined. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), around 5420 violations were noticed whereas in consequence 157 shops and markets were sealed, 102 transport vehicles fined on the violating the SOPs. In Punjab, 2448 violations of safety guidelines were witnessed in different parts of the province and in consequence to that 523 shops and markets were closed, 13 industries sealed and 703 transport vehicles were also fined on violations. In Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), as many as 85 violations of SOPs and safety guidelines were noted where in its consequence 64 shops, 10 transport vehicles were fined on flouting the safety and health guidelines. In Sindh, around 900 violations of SOPs and health guidelines were noted whereas 72 markets and shops were sealed along with 5 industries and also 9 transport vehicles were fined for violating SOPs.
Meanwhile, authorities on Wednesday confirmed at least 5,839 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally to 154,760. These include 58,239 in Punjab, 57,868 in Sindh, 19,107 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8,437 in Balochistan, 9,242 in Islamabad, 1,164 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 703 in Azad Kashmir.
The death toll from the virus stands at 2,975 with 136 deaths reported over the last twenty-four hours. Also, 28,117 corona tests were carried out during this period while 58,437 patients have so far recovered from the disease.