ZAHEER ABBASI
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to end all public meetings following rapid, four-time increase in the coronavirus cases in the country and the death toll climbing to 25 per day with Prime Minister Imran Khan imploring the nation to help the government in dealing with the second and severe wave of the pandemic.
Addressing the nation after the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Covid-19 meeting, the prime minister said that we have also decided to end the public meetings across the country and stated that his party has also decided to cancel public meeting scheduled for Saturday.
The prime minister said that the cases of coronavirus had increased four times during the last 10 days and deaths jumped from 6-7 per day to 25, and stated that “if we did not care, the hospitals would be unable to manage the pressure as was in June, after the first wave of the virus.”
This is the time to take precautionary measures by adopting the SOPs of wearing of facemasks, he added.
The prime minister said that the government had been able to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in June only because of public support, and now again public support was needed to slow down the spread of the virus to ensure continuation of business, and not to over burden the hospitals.
He further stated that, of course, virus would spread but, if the spread of virus was reduced, the situation in hospitals would not be like in June 2020, and that was why the NCC meeting had taken some decisions.
The prime minister said that the NCC had decided that no such activity was undertaken that would result in public gathering; mosques, factories, and shops had to follow SOPs because the government did not want closure of shops.
“We have also decided to end the public meetings across the country, and stated that his party has also decided to cancel public meeting, scheduled for Saturday,” the prime minister said.
He said that it would be preferable, if instead of marriage halls, marriages were arranged in open places, and gathering must not be of more than 300, while in restaurants social distancing must be maintained.
The prime minister said that the decision about an early and extended vacation in schools would be taken next week after monitoring the situation in schools.
The prime minister also stressed the need that coronavirus SOPs especially mask wearing must be followed by everyone and social distancing should be maintained.
The prime minister said that the SOPs had to be followed in mosques, as well as in factories, and shops.
The government would make sure monitoring of shops and other work places to know whether SOPs were being followed or not and also decided that the Tiger Force would dispatch pictures of those shops or businesses not following SOPs.
The prime minister said that Allah Almighty had been very kind to the people of Pakistan as the country was less affected from coronavirus compared to the other countries in the first wave with the number of deaths very low; however, the lockdown adversely affected the economy.
