–Sindh CM terms extension in holidays an attempt to contain coronavirus
KARACHI: The provincial governments on Sunday extended the holidays announced for educational institutes in the province in the wake of coronavirus and announced that all institutes in Sindh will remain closed till March 13.
The decision was made by Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah during a meeting that was held to discuss the preventive measures taken against coronavirus.
A previous notification from the provincial government had announced the closure of educational institutions from February 27 to March 2.
However, on Saturday, two more cases of coronavirus surfaced in Karachi and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) on Saturday, taking the total number of such cases to four. Coronavirus has killed an estimated 2,700 and affected 80,000 around the world so far.
According to CM’s spokesperson, the government decided to shut down educational institutes to prevent the virus from spreading. The extension in holidays would give the authorities time to ascertain how many of the people returning from Iran had met their children and relatives.
The meeting was told that 738 passengers had arrived in the city at Jinnah Terminal since Jan 15, 2020. The figures received from Tafftan, Yob reveals that 13,098 passengers have reached from Iran.
The chief minister directed all the agencies, including the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the health department to keep close coordination with the concerned officers working at the Taftan border so that they keep sharing day to day data of the passengers arriving there.
Shah said the data must contain the passenger’s name, date of arrival, district, taluka and complete address, CNIC number, mobile number etc. so that they could be tracked accordingly.
The meeting was told that the airport authorities had started enforcing all effective screening measures so that no active case could be able to enter into Karachi.
The CM also directed the concerned authorities to visit the Karachi airport regularly; he was told that the Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, the commissioner and others had visited the airport on Saturday night and found that the best screening arrangements were operational.
In his message to the people of Sindh, Shah said there was no need to be worried. “The measures we are taking such as closing educational institutes, tracking passengers and coordinating with the families of the pilgrims are purely for the safety of our people,” he said while urging people to cooperate with the government so that the province and country are kept safe from the virus.
He added that whatever cases had been diagnosed were being contained.
BALOCHISTAN SCHOOLS TO REMAIN SHUT TILL 13:
Similarly, public and private schools will remain closed till March 13 in Balochistan. The provincial government had announced that matriculation examinations under the Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BBISE) had been postponed and the same will be reorganised at a later date.
“We have received reports of two more positive cases of coronavirus, one has been reported in Sindh province, (the) other in federal areas,” Dr Zafar Mirza, Pakistan’s health minister, had said during a press conference on Saturday.
However, the health minister had assured people not to panic over the outbreak of the novel infection in Pakistan. He said that the two patients undergoing treatment were getting better and one of them will soon be discharged from the hospital.
