No curfew but lockdown to continue: info minister

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said the lockdown measures against the spread of coronavirus will continue in the province after Eid too. “But no curfew will be imposed in the province,” he said, while speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said there had been a rapid spread of the coronavirus epidemic in the province. He appealed to the people to observe cautions and avoid going outside of their homes without any valid reason.

He said people had taken “undue advantage of the relaxation in the lockdown measures in the province due to Ramazan and Eidul Fitr” and the situation had become alarming in the aftermath of “this brazen carelessness”.

He said people had to face severe hardships if in case precautions were not observed at this stage. “The prime minister said the elites have decided to impose lockdown in the country. But now the elites who are with the PM, including PM’s special assistant on health Zafar Mirza, and Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief ministers, have once more proposed imposing strict lockdown measures in the country,” he said.

To a question, the minister said the federal government, despite its commitment, had failed to commence the aerial fumigation campaign in the province from April 1 as “that is why the standing crops in the province have been facing a serious threat of locust attacks”. He said the Sindh government would “completely fulfil its obligations and commitments against the spread of coronavirus”.