Police would not deal with coronavirus cases: Punjab Chief Secretary

LAHORE:The war against coronavirus cannot be won without cooperation of people, therefore, it is needed to infuse sense of confidence among citizens to achieve positive results, said Punjab Chief Secretary Major (r) Azam Suleman Khan.

He stated this while chairing a meeting to review administrative matters, provision of healthcare facilities and daily-use commodities to the people in the province. The meeting was attended by Board of Revenue senior member, additional chief secretary Home, Lahore division commissioner and other officers concerned.

The chief secretary (CS) ordered that instead of police, only officials of Health Department and district administration would now deal with cases of confirmed or suspected coronavirus patient.

The meeting decided that the administration would be bound to facilitate logistics for power plants so that electricity production was not affected. He ordered the officers to ensure that the vehicles carrying eatables, medicines and medical equipment were not stopped in any case. In order to avoid inconvenience at check-points, such vehicles must have letters of relevant companies with them, he added.

The meeting reviewed the supply of essential items, including flour, sugar, wheat, pulses and ghee. The CS was briefed that additional supplies of the commodities had been given to all divisions and there was no shortage of any eatable in districts.

The industries secretary told the meeting that a crackdown on hoarders was underway across the province and a strict check was being kept on hoarding. The primary healthcare secretary briefed that the Contact Tracing System had been launched to get information about the people who remained in contact with a confirmed coronavirus patients, and the services of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the staff of Education Department would be acquired for the process.

Fruit, vegetable markets: Punjab Agriculture Minister Nauman Ahmed Langrial has said that fruit and vegetable markets are working as usual across the province. According to official sources here on Sunday, the minister said that there was no shortage of daily-use items, including flour.

He said that the government was taking solid steps to ensure availability of daily-use items to people. Nauman Langrial said that those trying to create artificial shortage of daily-use items were the enemy of society, adding that strict action would be taken against such elements. He appealed to the people to follow the safety measures against coronavirus. He said the government was standing with the people in the tough time.