Task Force orders admins to get tough with SOPs violators

PESHAWAR: A meeting of the provincial task force on Covid-19 was held here on Monday, with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.

The meeting reviewed the latest situation in the province, with special focus on the implementation status of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the provincial government to ease up the lockdown.

The forum expressed its concern on the violation of SOPs in some of the sectors and decided to get the SOPs strictly implemented. The district administrations were directed to take necessary measures to implement the SOPs and to close down the premises where SOPs were not being implemented.

Besides provincial ministers Taimur Saleem, Shaukat Yousafzai and CM’s Adviser Ajmal Wazir, the meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz, Provincial Police Chief Sanaullah Abbasi, administrative secretaries concerned and other relevant high-ups of both military and civil administration. The forum agreed to impose fines on those for not using facemasks in public places. The forum while expressing concern on the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases, approved a strategy for smart lockdown in hotspot areas to contain the mass scale outbreak of the pandemic. The strategy will be tabled in the next meeting of the provincial cabinet for final approval to add political ownership to it.

The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the progress made so far on the capacity enhancement of the public sector teaching hospitals of the province to effectively deal with corona cases. It was stated that significant improvement had been made in increasing the capacity of Intensive Care Units and High Dependency Units for Covvid-19 patients, ventilators, trained human resource and other necessary arrangements in the hospitals. It was decided in the meeting to carry out a need assessment of the District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs) as well and to devise a feasible plan to enhance their capacities in terms of corona cases.

Regarding the overall coronavirus testing capacity in public sector hospitals, it was informed that 3500 tests were being conducted per day and work is in progress to increase the number to 5,000 per day. The chief minister said that soon after the budget session of KP Assembly, all the cabinet members would be assigned special duties to regularly visit the DHQ and THQ hospitals to monitor the treatment facilities being provided to coronavirus patients therein.