LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to allow plying of public transport between districts till 6pm on Monday (tomorrow).

The public transport will be completely banned from May 10 6pm onward till 6am on May 15.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held to review the situation of coronavirus pandemic at the Civil Secretariat on Saturday. Punjab law minister Basharat Raja, health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, the chief secretary and senior civil and military officials attended the meeting.

Law minister Basharat Raja says the situation caused by coronavirus is being reviewed on a daily basis and the government is taking all possible steps to control the epidemic. He says the only solution to prevent corona is precaution, asserting that people should adopt precautionary measures proving themselves to be responsible citizens.

Dr Rashid says there is no shortage of vaccines at any [vaccination] centre in Punjab and more than 100,000 people are being vaccinated on a daily basis across the province. She says a proposal to provide corona vaccination facility at basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs) is under consideration. If people took precautions during the lockdown, she hoped, the cases would reduce significantly.

Chief Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik says the protection of health and lives of people is most important for the government. In the light of the decisions of the NCOC, he says, the decision to enforce lockdown in the province has been taken in the public interest. He says violation of lockdown would not be tolerated in any case.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021