Daily Times

The Provincial Task Force on Coronavirus (Sindh) has decided to resume educational, business and social activities all over the province from September 15 if the coronavirus pandemic situation does not deteriorate.

According to a press release, the decision was proposed by the National Coordination Committee, but the provincial government decided to review the situation in the first week of next month to go ahead with the plan. The meeting was held here on Saturday with Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair, while provincial ministers, Dr Azra Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Mukesh Chawla, Nasir Shah, and Murtaza Wahab along with Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Sindh Mushtaq Maher, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahalwani, and Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi were also present.

At the outset of the meeting, the chief minister said that just after the Council of Common Interests meeting, the prime minister had chaired an NCC meeting in Islamabad on August 6. He said that the meeting decided all business activities, including education institutions and others must be reopened from September 15. However, it was decided that the provincial governments would review the situation in their task force meetings to take final decisions.

In the meeting, Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho said that the coronavirus situation has improved and the number of new cases has started declining. Following this, the chief minister said that during the last 30 days cases have dropped down.

On July 8, around 1,782 new cases were reported and on every successive day the number went down, and finally on August 7, 2020, 487 new cases were reported, he said. “This doesn’t mean that coronavirus has been eliminated or contained but it teaches us that the virus still exists and we have to learn how to live with it until its vaccine is prepared,” Shah said.

Later on, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi read out the key recommendations released by the World Health Organisation on the reopening of economic sectors. “Share best practices. Apply lessons learned from countries that are successfully reopening social activities, including business, schools and other services and mitigating the resurgence of Covid-19. Sustain political commitment and leadership for national strategies and localised response activities driven by science, data, and experience and engage all sectors in addressing the impact of the pandemic. Continue to enhance capacity for public health surveillance, testing and contact tracing. Strengthen community engagement, empower individuals and build trust by addressing mis/disinformation and providing clear guidance, rationales and resources for public health measures. Engage in the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator, participate in relevant trials and prepare for safe and effective therapeutic vaccine introduction. Maintain essential health services with sufficient funding, supplies and human resources, prepare health systems to cope with resources, prepare health systems to cope with seasonal influenza, other current disease outbreak and natural disasters.”