–Proposals concerning decrease in working days also under consideration
ISLAMABAD: Amid surge in coronavirus cases, the federal government is mulling options for relaxing the restrictions, and shifting to smart lockdowns in areas where coronavirus cases are being traced.
Sources told Pakistan Today that the federal government is mulling proposals floated by the National Control and Operation Center (NCOC) of easing restrictions and shifting to smart lockdowns in areas with high number of infections.
The source said that a strategy would be finalized before May 9.
The source said that the NCOC had been deliberating upon various proposals and it would soon come up with a practical solution to handle the situation while easing the restrictions.
“After deliberations, we have agreed that this pandemic may not go early and we may have to live with it. So we have to adopt long term policies to deal with it. We also have to ensure monitoring and NCOC may also become a permanent feature till the disease is over,” an official said.
“We are contemplating proposals of giving an end to lockdown. In this regard, we are mulling options of allowing selected staff in federal and provincial offices. But we believe that easing restrictions should be gradual. Moreover, we are also planning to allow three holidays a week instead of two and the public sector offices may be off from Friday to Sunday. Working days may be from Monday to Thursday under the proposal,” the official said.
The official said that markets may also be allowed to open in phases and adopting social distancing.
“Markets may be allowed to work but there would be strict monitoring of social distancing. Moreover, the working hours would also be curtailed.
The official said that May and June would prove to be very crucial in dealing with the epidemic and the government was taking all possible measures to deal with any challenging situation.
The official said that Pakistan is well equipped to face any challenging situation regarding coronavirus.
“While China has largely helped out Pakistan but we have also developed our own capability. Today, we only have 440 patients allover Pakistan on ventilators, while the number of ventilators in the country is 500,” he claimed.
The official said that public and private companies were actively engaged in developing all sorts of medical equipment including ventilators, masks, protective suits, protective goggles and other items needed to treat the Coronavirus patients.
“In this regard, SPD is working with other companies and we are in a comfortable situation,” the official said.
