Panahgah keeps serving two time meal despite coronavirus with all SOPs enforced
Zubair Qureshi
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s brainchild and an exemplary initiative in community service, Shelter Homes or Panahgah kept working in the federal capital even during the peak days of the pandemic.
In these difficult days when all hotel and restaurants, roadside food stalls were disallowed, Panahgah kept serving food to the poor and the destitute and around 180,000 hungry and the needy people took lunch and dinner here.
Surprisingly, not a single person or the staff members were infected with coronavirus during these four months.
According to Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Panahgah Naseeumur Rehman, all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were strictly followed rather enforced at all the shelter houses. In June, he said we signed MoU with Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) to launch ‘Keep Panahgahs Clean” campaign, a leap forward in shared responsibility and, to promote hygiene habits at the facilities.
It marked a milestone in terms of transforming ‘Panagahs’ into a safe , secure and sustainable shelter for the daily wage earners who streamed into big cities to seek livelihood, he added.
In order to prevent the guests from being infected with coronavirus we installed hand-washing stations at all the facilities of the federal capital including those which located near Islamabad Sabzi Mandi and Sector G-9/4.
Shelter Home staff members made sure that each guest wore masks and washed hands properly before entering dining halls. Besides, they were seated at distances to ensure social distancing, he said. Besides, through posters and brief announcements Panahgah staffers kept reminding them of golden principles like “Cleanliness makes half of the belief,” he said.
We are committed to serving the public with same spirit in the days to come, he further said.
Meanwhile, Islamabad on Wednesday reported a total of 14,701 positive cases of coronavirus and 161 deaths. In the last twenty-four hours some 76 new cases and one death were recorded. The day turned out to be a dismal one with regard to the previous two days when 23 and 26 cases were reported respectively.
Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza meanwhile said that coronavirus cases were declining in the country in general and in Islamabad in particular.
“Islamabad stands out with tremendous success against the pandemic,” Dr Zafar Mirza in a tweet adding “The ICT has done wonders in controlling COVID-19.” This he said, is because of the meticulous case detection and isolation. On June 13, the federal capital had reported 771 positive cases after 4,136 tests and on July 20, of 1,452 tests only 26 positive cases were reported. “Hats off to DHO & Local Admn teams & their 24/7 work,” said Mirza in his post.
