STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday defended the PPP government’s decision to impose a lockdown in the province in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. “We took the extreme step after reviewing and observing what other countries were doing to curb the spread of the virus,” Shah said while addressing a press conference. Speaking about the growing number of cases in the province, Shah said the province had recorded one more death, taking the provincial tally to 31. “We have recorded 41 new cases, while 30 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and been sent home. Overall, 419 patients have recovered from the virus in the province while 317 people are in hospitals and 37 in quarantine centres at the moment,” he informed. Murad said that the reason a lockdown has not been effective in curbing the spread of the coronavirus is due to “mixed signals” from the federal government. He lamented the fact that despite his repeated warnings, there has been a lot of back and forth from the Centre on how to effectively tackle the coronavirus outbreak in the country. “This is not a provincial or state-level crisis. Right now, the entire world is gripped by it. We consulted global experts to tackle the situation,” he said. “We decided on making a quick decision about the lockdown,” he said. “When the first case emerged on February 26, we held a comprehensive meeting the very next day. The meeting was not only attended by people from the government, but also representatives from the private sector.” “We gradually closed shopping centres, parks, cinemas, etc. to avoid panic in the city. We all will make mistakes, but the biggest mistake of all would have been not taking measures at the moment,” he remarked.
