Spread of COVID-19 in thickly populated areas alarming, says CM

The novel coronavirus has started to spread in thickly populated areas of Lyari, Lea Market, Kharadar, Bihar Colony and different localities of various union councils of East, Malir, Korangi and West districts of the city.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this in a video message released by the CM House on Saturday. “This is something serious and needs to be stopped by conducting extensive tests and ensuring isolation in such high-risk areas,” he stated.

The CM discussed two important issues in the video message — the status of coronavirus in Sindh and soft loans for small traders.

He said 138 new cases had been detected in Sindh after 1,666 new tests. The number of tests conducted so far has been 22,938 while the tally of the cases has risen to 2,355, he maintained.

The CM said one more person had died of coronavirus in Sindh, after which the death toll of the disease had reached 48, which was two per cent of the total patients.

He added that 11 patients had recovered from COVID-19 in Sindh during the last 24 hours and the number of the recovered patients had come to 592, which was 26 per cent of the total patients.

Talking about the remaining 1,715 patients in Sindh, the CM said 951 of them were isolated at their homes, 475 at isolation centres and 289 in different hospitals.

Shah said 4,668 people of the Tablighi Jamaat had been kept in isolation, and 4,639 of them had been tested, of whom 477 were diagnosed as positive cases of COVID-19. The patients were then shifted to isolation centres, he added.

On Friday, new cases of COVID-19 in Karachi were detected in all the districts of the city and on Saturday, many cases emerged in Bihar Colony. “This is worrisome,” he said and added that he had ordered massive testing for COVID-19 in those areas.

The CM again urged the people of Karachi to observe social distancing and stay at home, or else it would be difficult to contain and stop the further spread of the novel coronavirus.

Meeting with traders

The CM also met on Saturday various associations of small traders in the city and discussed ways and means to allow them to operate their businesses amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

The concerned traders vowed that they would follow the government-devised standard operating procedures (SOPs) if they were allowed to operate their shops. They suggested that they should be allowed to start home delivery services.

To this, the CM said he was keen to strengthen online and on-call business activities. “This is the way how social distancing could be best observed,” he remarked.

The traders also agreed to open their shops on a rotation basis. For example, if a shop of a tailor is allowed to open on a particular day, all the related shops such as those of cloths, threads, etc., would be allowed to open on the same day.

Similarly, the day when the shops of air-conditioners are open, all the related shops such as those of electricians and electrical appliances will be allowed to operate then.

The CM constituted a committee comprising Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh, Excise & Taxation Minister Mukesh Chawla and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah to sit together with leaders of small traders and prepare an SOP within 24 hours for allowing operations of small businesses and submit the same for his approval and sharing with the federal government for further action.

On the request of the associations, the CM offered them certain exemptions from the SRB (Sindh Revenue Board) and provincial excise & taxation department’s recoveries.

Shah assured the traders that he would request the federal government to provide long-term loans to the small traders on soft conditions. The traders’ community lauded the CM for his prompt action against coronavirus and his support for traders in the province.