Addressing a meeting of doctors from both private and public sector hospitals, he said most of the dengue fever cases reported this year were of routine nature. "This is because the virus has although lost its severity in Sindh, however, continues to persist in the environment," said Dr. Saghir Ahmed. He said it was encouraging that there was no unusual rise in the incidence of the disease despite quite intense monsoons in recent past. Health Minister attributed this to proper planning of the Department and the concerned agencies, during past three years, that ultimately helped to keep in control the incidence rate this year. The Minister said proper and regular fumigation generally helped to contain spread of the virus. "We also managed to educate citizens and convinced them to resort to necessary preventive measures," he said. The Minister said provincial Health Department and allied bodies are not complacent and fumigation of each and every area reported to have even a single case of dengue fever, is immediately ensured. Under a renewed strategy an area of 1,500 meters around stagnant water pools, garbage dumps is sprayed in a manner that it penetrates into a minimum depth of 300 feet and kill the mosquito as well as larvae. Dr. Saghir said that in view of the outbreak in the Punjab, the Sindh government has entered into active collaboration with all concerned stakeholders. "Since there can be no room for complacency therefore the Health Department has arranged cell separators at its different hospitals so as to help easy availability of mega units," he said. The Health Minister regretted that many of the private hospitals were not cooperating with the Dengue Surveillance Cell responsible for compilation of data. He urged the administration of these hospitals to cooperate with the government as otherwise necessary action would be taken against them. Around 675 cases of dengue fever were reported in the province with 11 deaths till October 17.