Staff Reporter
Islamabad
In view of growing number of coronavirus cases and deaths due to the disease, the government has appealed to the masses to strictly follow precautionary protocols and social distancing measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 and wearing face masks at crowded places has been made mandatory.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Saturday, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said owing to a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, the government was left with no option, except to declare wearing of masks a must at mosques, markets, shopping malls, public transport, and other crowded places.
He appealed to the masses to strictly follow precautionary protocols and other measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that surgical and cloth masks can be used while travelling in trains, public transport or going to mosques, bazaars, and shops.
He said that the virus is spreading in the country with most of it being attributed to its local transmission among the community members. “92 percent cases are of local transmission of virus,” he said and added that safeguarding frontline workers was among their top priority.
While asking people to refrain from spreading propaganda regarding coronavirus, the special assistant said that no one would be allowed to resort to violence at hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.
“We have only utilized 25 percent of the heath resources of the country to deal with the pandemic,” Zafar Mirza said while rejecting any impression that rising cases has caused shortage of health resources.
He further said that 36 percent of the virus-affected patients have recovered in the country and asked the masses to strictly adopt the preventive measures.
Mirza said that in the past 24 hours, 78 deaths occurred while four health workers also died of the virus. “So far we have conducted 532,000 tests,” said the SAPM, continuing that in the past day 12,020 tests were done, out of which 2,429 came positive.
The minister cautioned that there is a dire need to follow the SOPs and guidelines to curb the spread of the virus. He urged people not to spread wrong information on social media, particularly regarding hospitals.
Dr Zafar Mirza listed mosques, bazaars, shops, malls and public transport including trains, buses and planes where people “must” wear masks as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus.
He further advised them to use their own “judgement” as well regarding wearing masks at home. “If you feel there are a lot of people, then you should wear a mask.”
“But I’m sure some hospitals are full in some cities. But that does not mean hospitals in the entire country are full,” he said. The PM’s aide stressed the need for following standard operating procedures and adopting social distancing particularly outside homes.
