PESHAWAR: Adviser to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) on Information Ajmal Wazir here on Saturday announced a Rs1 million compensation amount for families of journalists who die due to coronavirus.
Talking to media persons here, the adviser said journalist community has made valuable services by keeping people’s inform and Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan has announced this mega package to help the families of journalists in case of their death due to coronavirus.
Similarly, in case a journalist falls in, the government would bear all their treatment expenses.
It may be noted here that the Civil Defense has also distributed 1,000 sanitiser bottles, 1,000 masks and 100 PPEs among journalists in press club and union of journalists in KP.
Ajmal said that the total coronavirus confirmed cases in the province were currently at 656 whereas 131 patients had fully recovered, adding that 39 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours in KP. “The death toll, however, has raised to 25 and 20 patients remain in critical condition,” he added.
He also said that safety equipment worth Rs1.5 billion have been purchased for health workers while 275 quarantine centres having a capacity of 18,000 persons, besides 110 isolation centres with a capacity to accommodate 3,000 persons had been established across the province.
“Similarly, as many as 583 ventilators are available in KP and the number was being increased,” said Ajmal.
For backup, he said 9,500 persons, including doctors, medical specialists and paramedics have registered to help.
Similarly, for emergency services, 638 regular and 1,299 contract doctors have been recruited while the KP CM has announced Rs32 billion for coronavirus mitigation programmes.
About testing, he said that 450 tests were being conducted on a daily basis and this capacity would be increased by more than a 1,000 by this month.
Ajmal said about 20,000 litres sanitisers were distributed free of cost in the province by the Civil Defense and special attention was being given to protect people from the fatal virus.
“The health staff, police and journalists are the real heroes of the nation,” he concluded.
