ISLAMABAD          -       The Sindh government on Monday submitted a report to the Supreme Court in relation to the suo motu case on the government measures regarding the coronavirus crisis. In the report, the provincial government said that it issued guidelines in unequivocal terms to all the local councils to ensure that no sanitary worker is put to duty without adequate safety gear.

For regular supply of the safety kits/ PPEs to the sanitary staff throughout the year, all the local councils have been directed to allocate sufficient funds in the next year's budget for safety kits/ PPEs for the sanitary staff, the report stated. Moreover, legislative efforts are also underway to ensure safety and security of sanitation staff at workplace, it added. As regards, salary of the sanitary staff of WASA, Hyderabad, it has been reported that the Finance Department has recently released another tranche for clearance of the salary dues, which will be disbursed in a week's time. The report stated that the current situation is that the number of COVID-19 cases has increased exceptionally from 32,910 to 59,983 during the past two weeks (from 03rd June, 2020 to 17th June, 2020).

The COVID -19 PCR testing capacity in 21 laboratories trough out the province has now been scaled up to 11,486. About status of lockdown, the provincial government and NCOC have jointly formed a strategy with national consensus to enforce targeted lockdown, what has been termed as 'Smart Lockdown', in localities or areas where positive cases are alarmingly high.