Crowded places: Govt makes wearing facemasks mandatory

The country on Saturday recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths - 78 - while 2,429 patients were tested positive of coronavirus, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SPAM) on National Health Dr Zafar Mirza said. Addressing a press conference after attending a critical meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) along with another SAPM Dr Moeed Yusuf, Dr Mirza said wearing masks at crowded places had been declared mandatory to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
He said in view of growing number of corona cases and deaths due to this disease, the government was left with no option but to declare wearing of masks a must at mosques, markets, shopping malls, public transport, and other crowded places.
Dr Mirza appealed to the masses to strictly follow precautionary protocols and other measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19.
He said that 78 people, including four health workers, died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, which was the biggest tally in a single day in Pakistan.
He said health workers were the frontline force in the fight against the Covid-19 and the government had taken a number of measures to protect health workers under "We Care" programme.
Regarding some messages based on disinformation, the special assistant urged the opinion makers to guide people how to prevent the contagion instead of forwarding and promoting fake news on digital platforms.
He also urged the families of the Covid-19 patients to demonstrate patience, while interacting with health workers at hospitals.
The special assistant said recovery rate of corona patients was 36 percent, while locally transmission rate stands at 92 percent, and despite a rise in corona cases, only around 25 percent of our health system has been engaged so far.
Moeed Yusuf said the government of Pakistan was bringing back 1,000 stranded Pakistanis back to country on a daily basis.
So far, 35,000 Pakistanis have been brought back from 55 countries.
In the next 10 days, an additional 20,000 Pakistanis will be brought back.
The government is to formulate a fresh policy for overseas Pakistanis, Yusuf added.
Meanwhile, the participants of the NCOC meeting sought provinces' feedback on the negative list aiming to finalise the recommendations of reopening some more sectors of the economy.
The negative list comprises economic and industrial sectors halted due to the Covid-19 spread risk and were considered to be reopened in the coming days for economic sustainability and viability, so that a major unemployment crisis could be avoided.
This was discussed in a meeting held here at the NCOC, for analyzing long and short-term strategy on Covid-19 "Living with the Pandemic". It was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar.
The NCOC recommended that the educational institutes should be kept closed till August as the summer season and the pandemic would be at their peaks in July.
The forum emphasised the need for revising its communication strategy for better messaging and creating awareness among public on the Covid-19.
Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar said restaurants under the negative list would have to completely close their services or partially initiate functions with only takeaway services.
The forum insisted that the marriage halls should only be allowed with limited number of guests, one dish under strict compliance of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Asad Umar directed the concerned authorities to calculate the economic impact of the Covid-19 in the first quarter of current calendar year.
The NCOC stressed that capacity building and restructuring of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination should be done as per the approval by federal cabinet.
The forum was also apprised that the critical care resources would be increased owing to the surging risk of the pandemic.
The forum was informed that the testing capacity of the Covid-19 was being increased to 672,000 tests. Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar said that National Integrated Management System should be put in place for better coordination between the federal government and the provinces. Dr Mirza said although wearing of masks was mandatory, no punitive action was being taken against the violators.