PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Monday directed the officials to close down all businesses that were not following the SOPs laid down to protect people against the Covid-19 pandemic in the province.

A statement issued here said that Mr Khan was chairing a meeting of the provincial taskforce on Covid-19 that reviewed the situation resulting from the pandemic in the province and implementation of SOPs issued by the provincial government for various sectors to ease up lockdown.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Health Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Shaukat Yousafzai and Adviser to Chief Minister Ajmal Wazir, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, IGP Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan and other officials.

The meeting was briefed about implementation of SOPs and social distancing measures. Expressing dissatisfaction over the implementation status of SOPs in some of the sectors, the meeting stressed the need for getting the SOPs strictly implemented.

Mahmood Khan directs officials to provide required resources to hospitals

The chief minister also directed officials to close down the premises that failed to implement the guidelines.

The meeting reviewed the existing capacity of public sector hospitals with special focus on medical teaching institutions (MTIs) with regard to dealing the coronavirus cases. It discussed various measures to enhance the capacity of the hospitals.

The meeting decided to issue a uniform policy guideline to all the MTIs of the province to deal with coronavirus cases and give timelines to those institutions for enhancing their capacity. It also decided to improve and strengthen coordination and working relations between the health department and all the MTIs to ensure implementation of the government’s Covid-19 policy in letter and spirit.

The chief minister directed the relevant officials to ensure provision of the required resources to MTIs and devise a workable plan to enhance capacity of district and tehsil headquarters hospitals as well.

He also directed the officials to convene a special meeting on Monday next to review progress on the capacity enhancement of the MTIs. The meeting was briefed about the existing facilities including availability of ventilators, high dependency units and isolation units reserved for corona patients in all the public sectors hospitals of the province.

The meeting was informed that in the light of decision made in the last meeting of National Coordination Committee, SOPs were finalised for opening the tourism sector, however, it was not opened yet for tourists.

Mr Khan directed the quarters concerned to make a workable plan to get the SOPs implemented and carry out a public awareness campaign before formally opening the tourist spots.

The meeting was also informed that SOPs were being finalised to open inter-divisional transport in the province whereas SOPs were finalised for opening inter-provincial transport, however, it would be opened in consultation with the other provinces.

The meeting was told that international flights to Peshawar were restored and as per schedule issued by Civil Aviation Authority, Peshawar airport would receive 48 international flights per week.

Mr Khan said that safe return of the expatriates stranded in the Gulf countries due to the pandemic was the top priority of the government.

He said that special flights had been arranged to airlift the dead bodies of those, who lost their lives abroad.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020