Sindh cabinet green-lights Rs100 million to deal with coronavirus

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Tuesday approved Rs100 million for taking measures to avoid an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the province, ARY News reported.

The decision was taken in a meeting of Sindh cabinet with Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali in the chair.

The Sindh chief minister briefed the cabinet about the measures being taken by provincial govt to deal with the spread of deadly COVID-19 in the province after 2 cases were reported in Karachi.

During the meeting, CM Murad said that two people who tested positive for coronavirus had come from Iran and were not kept in quarantine centre.

“Sindh govt is taking serious measures to deal with coronavirus and i am personally looking over the matter. People who came from Iran had been kept in isolation at homes also,” he told the meeting.

Commenting over the decision of closure of schools till March 16, the Sindh chief minister was of the view that the govt took a decision to avoid the further spread of coronavirus.

The situation could have become more difficult if the children of people who came from Iran gone to school. To avoid this situation, the govt had decided to extend the closure of all schools across the province, he added.

Read more: Family members of Karachi coronavirus patient test negative

CM Murad said the provincial govt had decided to purchase 5000 testing kits to diagnose the coronavirus. He said that people who travelled to Iran and China will be tested for coronavirus.

“Overall 14000 people have come from Iran and majority of them belongs to Sindh province. The provincial govt has identified 2301 people so far and conducted 53 suspected coronavirus tests out of which only two reported positive, he briefed cabinet.

It is pertinent to mention here that the provincial government Sunday decided to keep all public and private educational institutions closed until March 13.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza in his tweet on Tuesday confirmed 5th case of COVID19 in federal areas.

The patient is stable and being managed well, the SAPM added