PESHAWAR - The civil and police authori­ties on Tuesday conducted a campaign, making announce­ments on roads and urging people to stay home and ob­serve social distancing, which can help fight the coronavirus epidemic.

The police cars made an­nouncements in every nook and corner of the provin­cial capital, asking people to stay indoors and observe hy­giene practices. The traffic remained thin on the roads on Tuesday. A day back, the government had announced public holidays from March 24 to 28 to prevent people’s crowds. Peshawar Police chief Muhammad Ali Gandapur said the City Patrol Force and other police mobile vans con­ducted the campaign on roads while station house officers (SHOs) asked the prayer lead­ers to make announcements through mosque loudspeak­ers asking people to observe social distancing.

“Around 100 special safety suits have been provided to policemen who have been de­ployed at quarantine centers, police lines and other places and more would be provided soon,” he added. Some police stations also provided safety kits to guards performing du­ties at the main gate.

Besides, employees of the district administration were also provided 100 safety kits to protect them from the coro­navirus while they conducted visits to sensitive areas.

Chief Minister’s Advisor Ziaullah Bangash told The Na­tion that they have set up an Emergency Response Unit, being headed by him, to pro­vide food supplies to daily wagers.

“We have compiled the data of 2,000 daily wagers in Ko­hat and tomorrow we will hand them food rations for 10 days each,” he said. He added that the unit comprises NGO workers, social activists, po­litical parties’ representatives and other local elders and that the donations were being collected from the local phi­lanthropists.