KARACHI: The provincial government on Friday announced that all business activities would operate from 8am to 5pm in Ramazan with certain exceptions.

However, exception given to milk and dairy shops to operate till 8pm shall be subject to condition that no sale of samosa, pakora, jalebi and such other iftar items shall be permitted.

According to the provincial government order, Taraweeh shall be offered at home and strict compliance of the lockdown will also be made for which the police and other law enforcement agencies have been given clear instructions.

A Sindh home department order said businesses would be allowed from 8am to 5pm for permissible activities with certain exceptions as per order of April 14 shall continue. However, exception given to milk and dairy shops to operate till 8pm shall be subject to condition that no sale of samosa, pakora, jalebi and other iftar items shall be permitted.

Cooked food home delivery

In view of Covid-19 situation, the sale of samosa, pakora, fruit chaat and such traditional iftar items sold before and around iftar time usually seen with increased gathering of customers shall not be allowed in any form at any place. These items may however be provided at home through home delivery service as per already issued SOPs.

The Ehtram-i-Ramazan Ordinance shall be strictly enforced.

Dairy shops to operate till 8pm; restaurants can deliver cooked food from 5pm to 10pm

Restaurants may operate for home delivery only and no takeaway or customer dining/service shall be allowed. Home delivery timings for cooked food shall be from 5pm to 10pm only. No delivery at other times is permissible. The same timings shall strictly apply to drive-through outlets but no takeaway from any restaurant/shop, etc, is allowed.

Any person/owner/manager engaged in any permissible activity/operation found violating any of the instructions contained in the order shall be liable for action in accordance with law as per Section 4 of the Sindh Epidemic Disease Control Act 2014 as well as any other applicable law.

Any business unit/shop/store/manufacturing or non-manufacturing unit found/reported violating the above instructions/SOPs, shall have the permission given to them during Covid-19 emergency suspended immediately and such workplaces may be closed.

Taraweeh at home

Keeping in view the increasing number of Covid-19 cases and based on consultations and inputs from doctors and experts, the government hereby directs all concerned that Taraweeh namaz/prayers, being not mandatory/farz namaz, shall be offered at home as per Sunnah.

This order shall come in force immediately with effect from April 23 and shall continue till further orders or till the end of Ramazan.

Any person found violating any of the instructions contained in these SOPs shall be liable for action in accordance with law as per section 4 of Sindh Epidemic Disease Control Act 2014.

Deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, as well as personnel of law enforcement agencies not below the rank of inspector of police (or of equivalent rank for other law enforcement agencies) are empowered under Section 3(1) of the said act to take any legal action on any contravention of this order or directions/notices issued there under, including action under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

All the bans/restrictions and exceptions notified earlier shall continue. Restriction on timings for coming out of homes from 5pm to 8am with the exceptions already given in the order dated April 14 shall continue.

Two more die of Covid-19

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his video message on Friday that two more coronavirus patients died in the province and the death toll had risen to 75, while 49 patients were in critical condition.

He said that 274 new cases emerged on Friday when 2,561 tests were conducted. “This is the situation against which we are struggling to slow down the spread of the virus so that necessary measures could be taken,” he added.

Mr Shah said that that out of 274 new cases, 202 belonged to Karachi and 71 to other districts. He said that there were 88 patients in district South, 60 in East, 28 in Central, 21 in Malir and six in West. “The number of coronavirus cases in Karachi has reached 2,285,” he said.

The chief minister said that 42 patients had recovered and were sent back home. “The number of the patients recovered from the infection comes to 772, or 20 per cent, of the total patients,” he said.

He said that 3,100 patients were under treatment including 1,893, or 61pc, at homes, 767, or 24.8pc, at isolation centres and 440, or 14.2pc in hospitals.

The chief minister said that six different flights had flown back 849 stranded Pakistanis, including 62 crew members and all of them were tested. “The test results showed that 127 were positive, 696 negative and 26 samples were being tested again,” he added.

He said that so far 35,589 tests were conducted and 3,945 of them were diagnosed as positive.

Mr Shah said that 5,102 members of the Tableeghi Jamaat were tested; as a result 765 of them were diagnosed as positive while the results of four people were pending.

He said that the TJ members declared as negative were being sent back to their homes. “The treatment of the patients is under way and hopefully they will recover very soon,” he said.

He said that after Karachi, Sukkur had shown spread of local transmission with 14 new cases. “The data of other districts is Sukkur 14, Umerkot one, Tando Allahyar one, Sanghar one, Qambar-Shahdadkot one and Badin one case.”

He said that being the chief executive of the province he had taken difficult decisions in the larger interest of the people. “I had announced a strict lockdown from 12 noon to 3pm on Friday and decided to advise people to offer Taraweeh at their homes,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2020