Soaring COVID-19 cases: KP govt asks opposition to postpone gathering

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has asked the opposition parties to cancel its public gathering in view of the rising cases of the coronavirus.

Provincial Minister for Health and Finance Taimur Saleem Jhagra said that coronavirus cases were on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We have entered the second wave of the corona. Prime Minister Imran Khan has cancelled a large public gathering to inaugurate the Rashakai Economic Zone,” he was quoted as saying in an official handout. It may be mentioned here that the 11-party opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement or PDM has planned to hold a power show in Peshawar on the 22nd of this month as part of its campaign against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government. The minister maintained that the opposition should not endanger the lives of people and cancel the public gathering. Taimur Saleem Jhagra was speaking at a media briefing along with Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Information and Higher Education Kamran Khan Bangash after the meeting of the National Coordination Committee for Corona Co-ordination chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Taimur Jhagra said the people and health workers fought the first wave of corona together and they would fight the second wave with the same enthusiasm. He said that Health Department’s capacity to deal with corona had increased and the health system in the province was improving with every passing day. “The country cannot afford a complete lockdown, so we have to fully implement the corona SOPs,” he said. Kamran Bangash said the meeting reviewed the overall situation regarding the pandemic and measures put in place to control it. He added that in the first week of October, the rate of corona positive case was 1.7 percent, which stood at 6.4 percent now. He said that the NCC had decided to ban public gatherings and processions across the country, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The special assistant said that the prime minister had decided to cancel a large public gathering on the occasion of the inauguration of the Rashakai Economic Zone in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the recommendations of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). He said the Rashakai Economic Zone was the first industrial zone under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which would create more than 200,000 jobs, adding that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had also cancelled his public functions after reviewing the corona situation.