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Corona lockdown ends today

PM Imran has asked people to strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs)

By 0ur Correspondent & Agencies
August 10, 2020

Corona lockdown ends today

ISLAMABAD: As the lockdown is being lifted on Monday (today) and the government has announced an end to the state of coronavirus emergency in the country, tourism is limping back to normality after a hiatus of five months.

Tourist destinations all over the country — including the federal capital — are slowly reopening and gearing to welcome visitors under safety measures outlined by the government. The step has been taken to revive an economy buckled under the weight of coronavirus pandemic.

According to visitors, cultural spots have also begun to reopen their doors with fewer crowds and new rules with a large number of visitors seen wearing protective masks. A number of tourists on Sunday flocked to Naran, Kaghan, Nathiagali, Murree, Swat, and other tourist destinations in the Hazara division where the police along with officials of health departments were on the road to facilitate the guests.

Speaking to APP, Sami Shabbir, a visitor in Murree, expressed his happiness saying: "After the lockdown restrictions eased around the country, our favorite places are reopening their doors to welcome us once again."

A group of youngsters in Murree regretted that a large number of people flocked to popular tourist sites and major cities over the weekend despite warnings from health authorities that the risk posed by the coronavirus pandemic remained far from over.

Another tourist, Bilal Malik, while travelling to Naran and Kaghan commented that the reopening of the tourism sector was vital to the country’s economy and this would help compensate businesses for the lost income and would help economy recover faster.

Many of the country’s restaurants that were closed only days ago also appeared to be doing a brisk trade, with several requiring reservations to enter. A 50-year-old citizen, Suleman Javed, said the health department in a notification had already directed visitors to use sanitizers while visiting parks, museums, historical and other places to avoid contracting COVID-19. He said people should prefer online booking of rooms and tickets to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.

As the government announced the lifting of curbs, medical experts warned that it would cause another spike in cases, Arab News reported. The varying restrictions, imposed in March, including the closure of schools, marriage halls, cinemas, international and domestic flights, helped the country bring down the death toll and the recovery rate to over 85%.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday expressed satisfaction over the government’s policy of smart lockdown and the public response against the coronavirus pandemic and asked people to strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs), as coronavirus threat was not over.

Imran Khan, in an address to Tiger Force at Korang Park Rawalpindi, stressed people to maintain social distancing and keep wearing masks in public places. PID

Addressing a big gathering of the Tiger Force volunteers and people from different walks of life at the Korang Park in Rawalpindi, Imran stressed upon maintaining social distance and wearing of masks in public places.

He said the world acknowledged the government’s steps to control coronavirus and also lauded the efforts of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Tiger Force and his health team for making hectic efforts in this regard.

The prime minister asked the nation to follow these SOPs during the Muharram ul Haram. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 caseload in Pakistan reached 284,481 with only 634 new cases reported during the last 24 hours, an official of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Coronavirus said. Sharing the data, he said a total of 6,093 deaths had been reported with only eight during the last 24 hours.

He said 260,644 patients had recovered, while 791 were in critical condition. He added a total of 2,127,089 suspected patients tested for coronavirus while in the last 24 hours 23,390 tests were conducted.

He said 123,849 cases were reported from Sindh, 94,360 from Punjab, 34,692 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15,241 from Islamabad, 2,321 from Gilgit Baltistan, 11,884 from Balochistan and 2,134 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

He said so far 5,869 active cases were reported from Sindh, 5,925 from Punjab, 1,863 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2,156 from Islamabad, 364 from Gilgit Baltistan, 1,421 from Balochistan and 193 from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

He said 2,262 deaths had been reported from Sindh, 2,169 from Punjab, 1,230 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 171 from Islamabad, 55 from Gilgit Baltistan, 137 from Balochistan and 58 deaths were reported from AJK.

He said as many as 115,415 patients had recovered in Sindh, 86,266 in Punjab, 31,542 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 12,914 in Islamabad, 1,902 Gilgit Baltistan, 10,326 in Balochistan and 1,883 in AJK.

In a related development, the Punjab government on Sunday announced reopening of cinemas and theatres with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) after significant decline in the number of coronavirus cases in the province. The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department issued the SOPs on the recommendation of the Technical Working Group, which will come into effect from Monday (today).

The SOPs for cinemas and theatres include ensuring hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, social distancing, cleanliness, and disinfection of the premises. The SOPs also include checking the health status and Covid-19 awareness activities.

The managements of cinemas/theatres would adopt “no-mask, no-entry” policy and limit the hall occupancy to 40 per cent of the total capacity. They will offer shows of shorter duration from 40 minutes to 60 minutes, while inter-show interval duration should be at least of 60 minutes to ensure proper cleanliness, disinfection, and ventilation.

Meanwhile, the global confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 19,929,969 and deaths to 731,847, with the number of recoveries standing at 12,809,325. Death toll in Brazil has topped 100,000 from three million cases of infection, crossing the grim milestone after President Jair Bolsonaro said he had a "clear conscience" on his response to the outbreak. With 100,477 fatalities and 3,012,412 cases, the South American country of 212 million people is the second hardest-hit by the global pandemic after the United States.

Chile’s death toll has topped 10,000 five months after the virus first appeared in one of worst affected countries in Latin America. With a population of just 18 million, the death toll ratio works out at 523.7 dead per million inhabitants, higher even than Brazil’s 472.7.

More than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus in South Africa. The continent’s most industrialised economy has registered 553,188 infections, more than half of the continental caseload, and the fifth biggest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. The United States is the worst-hit country with 162,425 deaths from 4,998,105 cases.

French regions have increased the compulsory use of protective masks against the coronavirus in busy public spaces where social distancing is more difficult. Paris adopts the same measure from Monday.

Anyone walking along the Seine in the heart of the city, visiting the tourist hub of Montmartre or shopping in some of the busier streets will all have to wear a mask, facing a fine of 135 euros if they refuse, as the number of cases edges up around the country.

Several resort towns on the Belgian coast say they will bar day-trippers after fights broke out between police and youths told to leave a beach for refusing to respect coronavirus safety measures. Knokke-Heist and Blankenberge, two popular towns on the Flemish northern coast near the border with the Netherlands, say they took the step to "guarantee public security."