Masses’ support vital to control coronavirus: KP CM

PESHAWAR – Chief Minister Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa Mahmmod Khan on Mon­day revealed that the overall corona testing capacity in the province was increased from initial forty tests per day to one thousand tests per day and said that work is in progress to further increase this capacity.

Paying rich tribute to the first re­sponders in the prevailing corona situation, Mahmood Khan said that the role of health workers, police personnel, Rescue workers and all other frontline workers was highly appreciable.

He was addressing a tele-confer­ence at Chief Minister House Pe­shawar on Monday.

He said that the provincial gov­ernment had announced a total package worth Rs. 32 billion to ef­fectively deal with the corona sit­uation out of which Rs. 13 billion will be given as top up to Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program for dis­tribution amongst deserving pop­ulation of the province.

“As many as Rs 8 billion have been released to Health Depart­ment for necessary procurements and treatment facilities of coro­na patients whereas Rs 6.00 bil­lion have been released to Relief Department for relief activities of emergency nature,” the Chief Min­ister remarked adding that the provincial government is making all possible efforts to effectively deal with the corona pandemic.

Mahmood Khan maintained that necessary arrangements had been put in place by the provincial gov­ernment for people expected to come from Afghanistan and Gulf countries.

He also said that people com­ing from abroad would be kept in quarantine facilities for initial days followed by screening and testing; and they would be allowed to go to their homes if their test were clear.

Mahmood Khan made an ap­peal to the general public to ex­tend maximum cooperation to the administration regarding so­cial distancing measures adding that without the public support, the government’s efforts would not yield the desired results.

He urged the public to inform the administration about the coro­na suspects and symptomatic peo­ple in the respective areas through the contact numbers of the control rooms set up for this purpose.

Regarding the members of Tablee­ghi Jamaat, the Chief Minister said that these people deserved special attention of the government and as such the relevant quarters have been issued instructions to make special arrangements for them.

About the relief package worth Rs. 114 billion announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, he termed it as the largest relief package in the history of the country and said that under the package deserving fam­ilies were given a cash amount of Rs. 12000 each across the country.

“Under the relief package of pro­vincial government almost 2.2 mil­lion deserving families of the prov­ince would be provided Rs. 6000 each whereas under the Zakat fund another one hundred thou­sand deserving families would be provided Rs. 12000/- each.

Mahmood Khan made an ap­peal to the well of people to take care of the vulnerable people around them in the prevailing difficult situation.