22 TMA staffers test positive for corona in Mansehra

MANSEHRA: As many as 22 staffers of Tehsil Municipal Corporation, including three officers, tested positive for the coronavirus and underwent self-quarantine here on Friday.

The officials of the Health Department confirmed that the Covid-19 screening of as many as 105 TMA Mansehra employees, mostly of lower grades, was carried out and 22 of them tested positive.

“We have started screening the family members of all those employees who contracted the Covid-19,” said one of the health officials.

The tehsil municipal officer has also ordered the corona infected employees to undergo the self-quarantine at their homes until tested negative.

Meanwhile, the district administration sealed a number of hotels and fined beauty parlors, which were in defiance of the precautionary measures set by the government to contain the contagion.

Assistant Commissioner Mansehra Javed Sardar Marwat sealed many hotels in the city and its suburbs. He also warned many hoteliers to strictly follow the SOPs set by the government for the hospitality industry.

Additional Assistant Commissioner Sundus Arshad Malik paid a surprise visit to parlors in the city and its suburbs and fined those in breach of the SOPs.

Assistant Commissioner for Oghi Zainab Ahmad Cheema sealed over a dozen hotels in Oghi and Darband and warned around 40 hoteliers to strictly follow the SOPs.

The president of the hoteliers association in Oghi, Mushtaq Ahmad, demanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to allow them to continue their business activities as usual.

“We have strictly been following the Covid-19 SOPs and secondly there are no crowds of customers at our hotels,” said Ahmad.