PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has said that the government’s move to further ease the coronavirus lockdown measures has exacerbated the threat of massive scale outbreak of the pandemic.

In a statement issued on Sunday, he called for strict implementation of the social distancing rules to put brakes on spread of the infection.

The chief minister said that contagion curve could rise with easing lockdown restrictions. He stressed the need for strict implementation of precautionary measures including social distancing to stem tide of the infectious ailment and safeguard the people.

Mr Khan also appealed to the people to strictly practice physical distancing principles during daily activities and adhere to the standard operating procedures while venturing out of homes for shopping etc. He said that social distancing and other precautionary measures were the only effective means to keep oneself and others safe from the pandemic.

The chief minister expressed the hope that people would show utmost responsibility in adopting all the precautionary measures issued by the administration in that regard.

Ajmal Wazir warns re-imposition of lockdown if guidelines not followed

“In view of the difficulties faced by the people, especially the vulnerable segments of the society due to lockdown measures, the government has decided to ease up the lockdown but it doesn’t mean that the pandemic is over and situation has come to complete normalcy,” he said.

Mr Khan said that chances of mass scale outbreak of the pandemic had increased so people should be extremely careful. “Keeping in view the ground realties of the province and financial crunches faced by the people, we cannot afford to have a complete lockdown as we are faced with two different challenges of containing the coronavirus spread and saving people from starvation,” he added.

The chief minister urged traders and businessmen to play their role effectively and support the administration to get the social distancing measures implemented in the markets.

Meanwhile, Adviser to Chief Minister on Information Ajmal Wazir has warned that violation of SOPs during relaxation in the lockdown would not be tolerated.

He told journalists here on Sunday that chief minister had already issued clear directives to the authorities to take legal action against the violators. He added that the lockdown could be re-imposed in case of non-implementation of the SOPs.

He also visited different barber and salon shops on the directives of chief minister and said that the lockdown could be relaxed further if people followed the guidelines issued by the government.

Mr Wazir said that government had allowed barber and salon shops to continue their business activities for three days a week-- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He added that other shops and bazaars were allowed under SOPs from Monday to Thursday.

He said that the reason behind allowing different businesses on different days was to avoid crowd in the markets. He said that government eased the lockdown keeping in view the problems being faced by people besides keeping economic activities going on.

Mr Wazir said that much of country’s population was living below the poverty line and Prime Minister Imran Khan was worried about the same group of people. He added ever since prime minister came to power, he was always worried about the underprivileged segment of the society terming it the reason why the lockdown was relaxed.

He appealed to people to follow the guidelines issued by the government.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2020