MULTAN: The district administration on Sunday locked the house of a man who died of coronavirus while placing a board with inscription ‘no entry’.

A 16-year-old resident of Tughlaq Colony died a couple of days ago and his report after his death confirmed that he was suffering from coronavirus. His funeral was held by adopting the SOPs set by the provincial government.

Later, all of his close contacts were screened and one of his nephews was also tested positive and shifted to Tayyip Erdogon Hospital, Muzaffargarh. The remaining family members have been quarantined in the house that has been locked. The houses of other close contacts of the deceased have also been declared quarantine centres.

On the recommendation of the district administration, police were deployed around the houses.

Meanwhile, philanthropist Khwaja Jalaluddin Rumi said 500 protective uniforms, testing kits and other relevant material had been provided to the district administration by his group. He said that during a recent meeting of industrialists with Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore, he represented south Punjab and assured the prime minister of providing assistance to the government on behalf of his community.

He said all the industrialists assured the prime minister that they would not expel their staff during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, police lodged an FIR against an informer for making false call to police regarding the death of a citizen because of coronavirus. A resident of Gulberg Colony made a call on 15 and passed on information that a doctor’s son who recently came from Italy had died of coronavirus and his dead body was at his house at Sharifpura.

A team of police reached the spot where the doctor informed them that the information provided to them was false as his son is currently living in Canada and is in good health condition.

Police registered a case against the informer over false information.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2020