Tailors, barbers not allowed to operate during lockdown: Murtaza Wahab

KARACHI: Spokesman of the Sindh government Murtaza Wahab on Thursday said that neither the federal nor the provincial government has allowed barbers, tailors, sanitary and other shops to operate during COVID-19 lockdown, ARY NEWS reported.

Giving a clarity of what would remain open during the lockdown in a video message, Murtaza Wahab said that the announcement from Prime Minister Imran Khan gave an impression that the lockdown was over.

“Any impression of easing or completely lifting lockdown in Sindh was baseless and the Chief Minister [Murad Ali Shah] has made it clear yesterday that it will going to be stricter,” he said.

The spokesman said that they have allowed construction and exports industry to operate on the premier’s directives. “The home department has issued the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the sectors allowed to operate during lockdown,” he said.

Murtaza Wahab said that all sectors exempted during the lockdown had to give an undertaking to implement the SOPs and no one would be allowed to operate without it.

Earlier in the day, Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister on Law Murtaza Wahab said that 340 new cases of coronavirus surfaced in the province during the past 24 hours.

In a Tweet, Murtaza Wahab said that four more deaths have also been reported during the past 24 hours while another 16 people have recovered from the illness.

With 340 new infections, the overall coronavirus cases in Sindh has reached 2,008. The death toll from the novel coronavirus stands at 45.

He said that Sindh has conducted overall 18,900 tests to date. The total number of recovered patients in the province reached 576, he added.