-Bilawal accuses Govt of purposefully slowing testing
Bureau Report
LAHORE: The National Command and Operations Centre finalised the Standard Operating Procedures on Monday regarding the cattle markets and smart lockdown in several places of the country ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
In today’s meeting presided over by NCOC chairman Asad Umar, the session was briefed that the plan for congregational prayers will be the same as it was for Eid-ul-Fitr. Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, provincial Health Minister Yasmin Rashid, and Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat attended the session, along with other provincial representatives. The forum was told that around 700 cattle markets will be functioning across Pakistan at the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, for which necessary guidelines have been forwarded.
Addressing the session via videolink, Umar said that the management of cattle markets is quite important in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus as people move back and forth during this time. The minister said that the cattle markets will be set up outside the cities and a layout of these will be shared with everyone so health protocols and guidelines can be followed.
The NCOC chairman said that the local administrations should ensure that the cattle markets should operate from 6am to 7pm. Among other guidelines, it was decided that the screening of those entering the markets is mandatory. People will be asked to ensure they are wearing face masks and practicing social distancing. The officials will be asked to ensure that only a designated number of people will be allowed inside at one time to avoid over-crowding.
The forum also discussed smart lockdowns imposed in certain areas due to a higher number of the coronavirus cases and a future strategy regarding the lockdowns. The NCOC identified 30 cities as COVID hotspots, with maximum infected people using auto trace and National Information Technology Board maps. At the moment, 321 smart lockdowns are enforced across Pakistan, said the NCOC statement. Under the smart lockdown strategy, the forum was told that 750,000 people were traced who came into contact with COVID-infected people. The officials informed that the COVID-positive patients were put under home-isolation or quarantine across the country to potentially save ‘about 300,000 individuals from getting infected’.
“Contact tracing is being accelerated through a combination of RRTs (Rapid Response Teams) and call centers,” said the statement. It said that local communities play a vital role in the fight against COVID-19, where rural support network organizations, other groups, etc participate in different activities, supporting the local administration.
Asad Umar said on social media that in a meeting with CM Punjab Usman Buzdar, he lauded the efforts by the provincial government against the coronavirus. The minister said that he also urged compliance with the SOPs, ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. As many as 69 more people died due to complications related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 5,266.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the national tally of cases soared to 251,624 with the addition of 2,769 new cases detected during the previous 24 hours. As many as 22,532 COVID-19 tests were conducted. 84,442 patients are under treatment at present while 161,917 have recuperated from the infection. Overall 15,851,70 tests have been conducted across the country. 105,533 cases have been detected in Sindh so far, 87,043 in Punjab, 30,486 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11,185 in Balochistan, 14,108 in Islamabad, 1,599 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 1,671 in Gilgit Baltistan.
The number of coronavirus cases across the world has risen to over 13 million while the pandemic has so far claimed more than 571,000 lives so far. The United States is the worse hit, where cases have mounted over 3.4 million and death toll reached over 137,000. In Brazil, over 1.8 million cases and more than 72,000 deaths have been reported so far. About 7.5 million patients have recovered from the disease across the world. The Punjab government on Monday announced to start sampling in all jails of the province in order to contain the deadly coronavirus.
In the first phase, a smart sampling of 30 prisoners and 10 staff members will be conducted, according to Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig, Inspector General of Prisons Punjab. Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab will take samples of prisoners and staff members under the “smart sampling project” to “detect and determine the spread of Covid-19”. Mirza Shahid Saleem Baig said the smart sampling will help to detect corona patients in Punjab jails and positive coronavirus prisoners will be kept in isolation after the emergence of results. The second phase of smart sampling will start from next week.
Earlier, 487 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported in Punjab in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the province to 87,043. The province also reported 7 more virus-related deaths in last 24 hours, pushing the provincial death toll to 2,013.
According to the portal, 58,023 people have recovered from the virus in the province so far.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the national tally of cases soared to 251,624 with the addition of 2,769 new cases detected during the previous 24 hours. As many as 22,532 COVID-19 tests were conducted. Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that the efforts of Punjab government in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in the province are commendable. In a tweet on Monday, Asad Umar who is also head of National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on coronavirus said, “In today’s meeting with Punjab Chief Minister (Sardar Usman Buzdar), I complimented efforts made by the provincial government to control spread of Covid-19 and improve health care capacity in the province.”
The Minister Planning also emphasized the need for continued vigilance for Standard Operation Procedures SOPs) compliance, smart lockdowns and most importantly Eid ul Azha SOPs.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday said that 1,089 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the province to 106,622, media reported. In a statement on the coronavirus situation, CM Murad Ali Shah said that 31 more people succumbed to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 1,826. The chief minister said that 40,967 coronavirus patients are undergoing treatment in the province, including 398 at isolation centres and 39,375 at their homes. He maintained that 1194 COVID-19 patients are admitted at the hospitals and out of these patients, 722 are in critical condition. The chief minister said that 121 patients are on ventilators in the province.
Sindh CM said that 1871 more COVID-19 patients recuperated today, taking the number of recovered patients to 63,829 in the province. Murad Ali Shah said that 8929 tests were conducted in Sindh during past 24 hours and overall number of tests in the province has reached to 584,596. He said that among 1713 fresh cases in Sindh, 312 were detected in Karachi including 105 in Karachi South district, 80 in Karachi East, 48 new cases in District Central, 32 in Malir, 32 in Korangi and 15 positive cases in Karachi East.
Meanwhile, 127 fresh cases were reported in Ghitki, 106 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 73 in Sukkur, Dadu 58, Hyderabad 37 and Shikarpur 44.
Moreover, 30 cases of coronavirus reported in Sanghar, 23 in Mirpurkhas, 27 cases in Thatta, Sanghar 35 and 25 cases in Tando Allahyar. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday accused the PTI government of putting the lives of people in danger by lowering Covid-19 testing capacity “on purpose” while refuting the claim that coronavirus cases in the country were going down.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the PPP chairman said Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers were “making a mockery” of themselves when they claimed that the graph of coronavirus cases was going down.
“If you stop testing, then the graph will [obviously] go down. But the same number of people will fall ill and die,” Bilawal said. “They are putting the lives and the health of the people in danger. They are lowering testing capacity […] this is a conspiracy against the people, they’re not fooling anyone.” On the other hand, Bilawal claimed that Sindh was conducting the highest tests per capita and had the most intensive care unit (ICU) and high dependency unit (HDU) beds per capita.
“When the Centre was celebrating 100 days of battling the pandemic at the National Command and Control Centre, the Sindh health minister was inaugurating a 50-bed infectious diseases hospital in Karachi.”
Earlier today, PPP’s Central Information Secretary Nafisa Shah in a statement also said that a reduction in the number of coronavirus tests being conducted by the Centre should not be taken to mean that coronavirus cases in the country are decreasing. Shah claimed there were crowds lining up at the country’s hospitals and patients were facing difficulties. “People in the country have recovered but new cases are also emerging in large numbers.” she said. She warned that the federal government taking credit for a reduction in the number of cases by reducing testing could “prove to be destructive” and alleged that the Centre was making “misleading statements” in front of the country and international community. During his presser, Bilawal also claimed that despite being given limited funds by the Centre, his party’s government in Sindh had managed to provide relief to the people, frontline health workers and poor farmers affected by locusts by not allocating funds for new development schemes in the budget for the new fiscal year. “The fiscal space that we created by doing this, we are spending it on protecting people’s lives and providing them support during these tough times.
“The same steps should have been taken in other provinces. The Centre should have paused the Public Sector Development Programme and used that fiscal space to save the people’s lives and health.” He maintained that the PPP’s actions showed that it was committed to helping the people during this difficult time, claiming that Sindh was the only province offering free Covid-19 testing and treatment. “If you need to get tested and don’t have the money, we will do it for free. If you can’t afford treatment for Covid-19, the government will provide it. We are the only province that has been doing this since day one.” The PPP chairman also dedicated a part of today’s press conference to criticising the premier and the PTI for poor governance.
“The PTI has broken records of corruption. You can’t spell the word corruption without PTI,” he said, adding that government departments were being used to facilitate this.
Responding to Bilawal’s presser, Communications Minister Murad Saeed said that the PPP was “upset” because the government’s strategy on Covid-19 had proven to be successful. They wanted to impose a lockdown to combat the virus from day one, as it was in “fashion”, he said. “But what is the world saying now? Oxfam is saying what Imran Khan said from day one: You have to save people from the virus and from hunger,” he said, referencing a report by Oxfam stating poverty and hunger resulting from the pandemic could lead to more deaths than the disease. “The PPP said no one dies from hunger, but the report contradicts that statement. When the premier introduced the concept of a ‘smart lockdown’, they made so much noise. Now the whole world is saying that ‘smart lockdowns’ are the only solution,” he claimed. They are upset because they wanted the economy to fail and the number of deaths to increase, he said, adding that under the government’s Ehsaas programme, cash handouts were given to the people of Sindh. “Instead of rejoicing in a win for Pakistan, they are upset because the economy wasn’t destroyed and deaths didn’t increase.” The minister went on to say the PPP government had failed to control virus spread in Sindh and could not implement a smart lockdown like in other parts of the country, where cases were going down.
