QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Langove has warned that if people do not adopt safety precautions to contain the spread of coronavirus, the government will have to tighten lockdown across the province.

Presiding over a meeting here on Monday, he said the government would use other means to keep the people indoors as they were not restricting their movement during the lockdown.

The minister said that despite repeated appeals and warnings the people were not cooperating with the government and violating the lockdown, resulting in a swift increase in cases of coronavirus over the past one week.

Additional Chief Secretary Home Hafiz Abdul Basit briefed the meeting on the fast rising number of Covid-9 cases in Balochistan and said as there was no vaccine so far to treat the patients of the deadly virus the people had the only option to wear masks and keep social distancing to contain the spread of the virus.

The home minister said the situation was becoming serious as the masses were still not taking the virus seriously.

“We have no option but to tighten the lockdown or adopt other stricter measures across Balochistan in view of the local transmission of the virus.”

Mr Langove said that with 72 fresh cases, the number of positive cases reached alarming levels in 17 districts of Balochistan, including Quetta.

He said the provincial government had been utilising all resources to provide all facilities, including safety gear to doctors and paramedics to help them fight coronavirus

IG Police Mohsin Hassan Butt, Saleh Mohammad Nasir, Social Welfare Secr­etary Abdul Rauf Baloch, Additional IG Abdul Razzaq Cheema, Quetta Division Commissioner Usman Ali Khan and Deputy Commissioner retired Major Aurangzeb Badini also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2020