Govt to get tough on violators of anti-Covid SOPs
Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The premier has said that he will monitor the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the country from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and direct provinces to submit daily reports in this regard.
“We will close down places that violate SOPs. All monitoring will be done from [PMO] and it will be closed, whether it be a shop, a mall or a factory. If the virus is spreading in a neighbourhood, and people aren’t following rules, we will cordon off the area. The Tiger Force will help the administration with this.”
He added that the government had not been strict about it before because it did not have data “but now that it has, I will monitor, analyse and enforce strictness [in following SOPs]”.
The premier added that the government has also asked data managers in all hospitals to give it feedback so it could get “accurate data”.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that Pakistan’s deaths from the coronavirus will increase in the coming days. “In the world you will see that the [graph] first goes up and then goes down. Right now we are going up.
“This is a difficult time. Nations that will come together and battle this, it will not be that hard a time for them,” he said, adding that people needed to be made aware about the pandemic. “People need to know that it will spread if they don’t follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) and that will increase burden on hospitals.
“People need to understand that if we don’t follow SOPs and don’t take precautions, it will affect hospitals. We will place the lives of people who can be saved, the elderly in danger [by not following SOPs],” he added.Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the country was “saved because a complete and extended lockdown” was not enforced. Referring to a recent international survey, he said that it showed that rich people were “not affected” by the pandemic. “I said this from day one, think of katchi abaadis and daily wagers. Why were we saved? Because we did not do a complete lockdown, we opened construction sector early.”
He added that the way the government had distributed money was the reason why “Pakistan’s situation was not like India”. Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the opposition wants the country’s economy to “fail so that they can criticise the government further”.
Addressing the nation on the Covid-19 situation, the premier said he was “thankful that the situation in Pakistan is a lot better than the world”.
