peshawar         -            The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has made it mandatory for people to wear masks in public, as the number of coronavirus cases in the country soared.

According to media reports the KP Finance and Health Minister Taimur Jhagra while addressing a news conference said that the chief minister’s taskforce has made it mandatory for public to wear masks in public places, adding that it was possible that people would have to live with the coronavirus for two to three years.

He said that it wasn’t necessary for people to wear surgical masks. The minister said that people could wear an old shirt or a piece of cloth to protect others from getting infected from them.

Jhagra said that the measure will be enforced in three phases. For the first 72 hours, we will take a soft approach.

Over the next week, we will focus more on the implementation. A week after that, we will try that the public, at least in the province’s major cities, are wearing masks.