KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday that as a nation our preparedness to contain the coronavirus was weak, unorganised and without national guidance.

“We are not prepared to face the endemic because the provinces, particularly Sindh, [have] been left alone to take a decision ... but there is no guidance from the federal government and this is dangerous,” he added.

This he said at a meeting with Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Health Dr Zafar Mirza through video link from the CM House.

The chief minister was assisted by Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho and other relevant officials.

He said that thousands of people were landing at the airports in Pakistan and our system did not diagnose them even if any of them had symptoms of influenza or fever, adding: “The provincial authorities detected the cases when the passengers were cleared from the airport.”

‘Only Sindh and Balochistan have closed educational institutions’

The chief minister said that 14 cases had been detected in Sindh because his “dedicated team” was running from pillar to post to identify the persons who had the travel history and even went to track their contacts.

He said that the matters pertaining to the closing of borders, closing or opening of educational institutions, strict checking measures at the airports, quarantine arrangements, travelling of pilgrims from Taftan to upcountry destinations were some of the decisions which would have been taken on the national level.

“Only Sindh and Balochistan have closed educational institutions and we are also taking such decisions in isolation,” he said.

Mr Shah said 2,683 pilgrims from Pakistan were in quarantine at Taftan, Balochistan border, of whom 853 belonged to Sindh and they would start arriving in the province on Friday (today) evening.

The chief minister said that 932 pilgrims of Sindh were identified and they all were in Iran.

The meeting was told that so far the provincial government had conducted 198 tests of the suspected patients, of whom 184 were declared negative and 14 positive.

Syed Murad Ali Shah said that all the 14 cases were “imported” and there was no local transmission. He added that of the 14 cases, eight had the travel history of Syria, three of Dubai-UK and as many of Iran. “But how many passengers from countries other than Iran have been screened?” he said.

He said the provincial health department professionals dealing with coronavirus cases were at risk and there was no national guidance for them.

He urged the federal government to adopt a zero-tolerance policy at the airports and all the passengers travelling to Sindh should be advised to be quarantined at home for 14 days.

“Surveillance should be strengthened further and capacity of quarantine and isolation centres should also be enhanced,” he said.

The chief minister also urged the federal government to start a mass-media awareness campaign for community engagement and there was a dire need for multisectoral teamwork.

The PM’s special assistant on health said that another meeting would be held on Friday in which important decisions would be taken.

Task force meeting

In the 15th task force meeting held under the chairmanship of the Sindh chief minister, it was disclosed that the Sindh government team with the support of airport authorities checked 3,063 passengers on Wednesday and one of them was found to be a suspected patient. The person, who had returned from Iraq, had been shifted to hospital.

The chief minister directed the health department to maintain a register of the passengers, collect health cards/travel cards from them and feed them into the database.

He also directed the chief secretary to depute at least eight data entry operators at the airport.

The CM was told that so far the public hospitals working all over Sindh had shared the data of 1,874 patients of pneumonia and fever while the private hospitals had given a list of 702 suspected patients.

The health department on Thursday conducted 33 tests and all of the tests proved to be negative.

The commissioner of Sukkur told the chief minister that they had two suspected cases and their necessary medical investigation was under way.

The chief minister directed the commissioner of Karachi to test all the pilgrims coming from Taftan, Balochistan.

He directed the health department to arrange the testing kits for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2020