MUHAMMAD SALEEM

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday announced 20-percent fee waiver for all the students of private schools in the province amid lockdown due to coronavirus.

Briefing media here at the committee room of Primary and Secondary Healthcare department, the CM said the relaxation has been provided for two months of summer vacations. Furthermore, the private educational institutions have been directed not to collect the two-month fee at a time. Furthermore, no employee of private educational institutions will lose their job, he said.

The chief minister said that around 3000 coronavirus tests are being conducted every day in the province of Punjab and this testing capacity will be increased to 5000 per day in the next two weeks. An amount of Rs 620 million has already been released to the health department for the up-gradation of labs in different divisions.

He said that field hospitals in different cities of the province will become operational. There is field hospital of 300 beds in Gujranwala, 400 beds in Gujrat, 300 beds in Mandi Bahauddin, 200 beds in Sialkot and 250 beds in Jhelum. These hospitals will be operational from today, he said.

Sardar Usman Buzdar further said that the total amount of the relief package has been increased from Rs 4000 to Rs 12000 for 2.5 million families; however, 15 million people have applied for the relief package.

Earlier, the CM visited Central PCR lab in personal protection equipment (PPE). The CM was told that lab is capable of conducting 2000 coronavirus tests per day.

Sardar Usman talked with the personnel in the Lab about procedure of test.

On the other hand, inspired by the success of telemedicine services, Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has announced to start a ‘tele-ration helpline’ from Tuesday (today) to provide food on daily basis to the poor people at their doorsteps.

After formally launching the first national drug trial “Protect Pakistan” and inaugurating antiseptic tunnel at the University of Health Sciences (UHS), the Governor said that coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic would not leave soon. “Along with coronavirus, we have to save the people from hunger as well”, he said, adding: “About 300,000 persons would be provided ration with a cost of rupees one billion.”

Appreciating UHS efforts in fight against coronavirus, the Governor assured that the results and recommendations originating from the UHS research would be implemented by the Punjab and federal government.