PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department wants reduction in the number of passengers travelling in public transport vehicles to and from the infected districts to prevent spread of Covid-19 to other areas.

Officials said that they would recommend imposition of complete lockdown after continuous surge in Covcid-19 cases, particularly in central districts and Swat.

On Monday, the province recorded 10 more deaths from Covid-19 which included seven from Peshawar, two from Mardan and one from Haripur. The provincial capital has been the epicentre of the virus and accounted for 1,173 mortalities of the total 2,225 persons died of coronavirus in the province.

A report issued by health department said that 482 new cases of coronavirus were recorded in the province during the last 24 hours, which made the total tally of incidence 80,519. Currently there are 5,791 active Covid-19 cases in the province. Of the total infected persons, 72,500 have recovered.

Officials hint at complete lockdown as 10 more die of Covid; health emergency extended for three more months

The report said that 167 patients tested positive for the virus in Peshawar where number of cases was 32,985. It said that 178 more patients were recovered from the infectious disease.

“Positivity for Covid-19 swabs has swelled 10 per cent in Peshawar, Swabi, Charsadda, Mardan and Swat. We fear cases may increase as the intra-city transport continues to operate,” said officials. They added that overall positivity level in the province was 7.9 per cent that was a source of concern.

Abbottabad has registered 154 deaths due to coronavirus, Swat has recorded 133 deaths and Mardan has recorded 109 deaths due to the pandemic.

Officials said that National Command and Operation Centre in a meeting on Monday allowed the provinces to impose lockdown and close schools and trade activities if cases continued to emerge. Instead of imposing smart lockdown in a street, there should be restrictions on more people in the surrounding areas, they added.

“There will be no option except to recommend complete lockdown throughout the province. We have already recommended to the government to reduce the number of passengers by half in the intra-city transport vehicles and 70 per cent in the vehicles coming from the hard-hit districts as part of strategy to prevent transmission of the virus,” said officials.

They said that precautionary steps announced by the government in nine districts should be enforced in true sense because the speed of mortalities in third wave of the pandemic was alarming.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government extended public health emergency for three more months to ensure rapid procurement of medical equipment and strict implementation of the standard operating procedure for prevention of Covid-19 in the province.

The extension of the emergency, which was first enforced in February 2020 when the pandemic broke out, is meant to ensure prompt procurement of personal protective equipment (PPEs) along with medicines for effective management of the pandemic in the province.

A notification issued on Monday said that the health emergency was extended from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

The health emergency was extended from time to time to relax normal procedures of procurement and resource availability to help the relevant authorities to take quick measures unlike normal procedure that takes longer to procure medicines etc.

The notification said that extension of emergency was approved by the chief minister on the recommendation of health department. Lockdowns, sealing of shops and limiting gatherings in the markets and ensuring use of face masks, keeping social distancing and washing hands have been covered under the emergency law.

Officials said that they wanted to get fully prepared and deal with emergency patients. Extension in public health emergency will enable health department and district administration to take steps for the treatment of patients and force the people to follow the precautionary measures.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2021