CM Mahmood Khan urges people to follow corona guidelines

MINGORA: Urging the people to follow the guidelines, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday said the provincial government was taking all possible steps to tackle the coronavirus and more laboratories were being established to facilitate people.

The chief minister along with Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed paid a visit to Swat district to review the coronavirus situation and the arrangements made by the district administration to contain the pandemic. During his visit, the chief minister visited Saidu Sharif Hospital and inaugurated Molecular (PCR) Laboratory. The newly-established lab would cater to the testing requirements of corona suspects at local level. The laboratory has a capacity to perform 70 tests per day, which would be increased to 100 tests per day within the next couple of days.

The chief minister also visited an isolation centre established at the PTDC Motel in Saidu Sharif and a quarantine centre at the hostel of the Jahanzeb College.

Talking to reporters, Mahmood Khan said that the provincial government was working on increasing the testing facilities for the corona suspects across the province.

He added that the public health laboratories were being established at all divisional headquarters of the province to meet the growing number of corona tests.

He termed the establishment of the Molecular (PCR) Lab at Swat as a key progress and said the laboratory would cater for the futuristic need of testing for the entire Malakand division in case of any epidemic.

The chief minister urged the people to extend cooperation to the local administration by minimising their unnecessary movements and maintaining social-distancing. He said the provincial government had allocated a relief package worth Rs13 billion to benefit 2.1 million deserving families of the province in addition to 100,000 households to be covered under Zakat funds.