The Sindh government has decided to shut down all the restaurants and shopping malls across the province to control the spread of coronavirus.
However, grocery stores will not be asked to close early.
Meanwhile, IG Sindh has been directed to arrest those selling tissue papers and hand sanitizers at inflated costs.
As per reports, coronavirus cases in the country have risen to 236 with the maximum number of cases from Sindh.
The College Board has announced that it has cancelled two upcoming SAT exams due to coronavirus concerns.
Tests scheduled for May and makeup exams for the March have also cancelled and registered students will receive full refunds, the College Board said in a statement.
A new date has not yet been announced for additional SAT testing opportunities.
“The College Board will remain focused on student safety and ensuring all students have the tools they need to work, and opportunities to receive the credit they have earned, during this challenging time,” the statement read.
The news comes as schools nationwide have temporarily shut down over coronavirus alarms. Many colleges and universities have also moved to online classes.
A shopkeeper was arrested for selling hand sanitizers at inflated prices in Karachi.
As per reports, the police had raided a pharmacy in Dolmen Mall, Clifton and arrested a shopkeeper who was allegedly selling sanitizers at more than four times the original market price. He was arrested for violating Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
As the number of coronavirus cases hit 184, there is a shortage of hand sanitizers and face masks at the grocery stores across the country.
People have been directed to use hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the pandemic.
Earlier, the police had arrested another shopkeeper for selling a bottle of hand sanitizer at Rs 1,000. A case was registered against him and 288 bottles of sanitizer were seized from his possession.
With the coronavirus spreading fast, misinformation on the matter is also spreading with the same speed causing panic among citizens.
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Meanwhile, The Current is also posting all updates regarding the coronavirus on its live blog. You can visit the blog here:
In a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus, the Karachi police is sealing large restaurants in the city.
As per reports, the police have taken action in several areas, including Rashid Minhas Road, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Keamari. They are also taking action against large gatherings of people.
Earlier, the Sindh government had released advisories asking people to avoid going to crowded places and government officials had been requesting people to refrain from getting together and even celebrating wedding functions.
On Saturday, Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar had announced that recreational sites in Karachi, including the Karachi Zoo, Safari Park and Landhi-Korangi Zoo, have been closed for the public for an indefinite period of time. All marriage halls, shrines and cinemas in the province have also been closed for the next three weeks.
According to the latest reports, Pakistan has at least 84 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country. At 76, Sindh has the highest number of cases. Two people have recovered.
Senator Murtaza Wahab has confirmed 50 new coronavirus cases since his last update — 41 new cases since The Current’s last report — in Sindh, which has taken the total number of infections in Pakistan to 94.
According to Murtaza, out of the total 76 patients in Sindh, two have recovered while the remaining 74 are being kept in isolation. 25 of the said cases are in Karachi.
RELATED: Pakistan’s handling of coronavirus among world’s best: WHO country head
Meanwhile, Lahore has confirmed just one case of the virus, one in Islamabad and Punjab has imposed section 144 in the province, shutting down schools and public places for three weeks. Shrines have also been closed in the province for three weeks.
READ MORE: Daily Coronavirus Updates
Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan has stated that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan is personally monitoring the pandemic and its spread in Pakistan.
In a shocking development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 13 new cases of type 2 polio cases. This is the highest number of cases to be reported in the province in one day.
According to the provincial health department, seven of the cases were reported from Khyber tribal district, while one case each was reported from Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Mardan, Nowshera, Bajaur and Lower Dir.
WATCH: The Current tours Pakistan’s Polio Lab
A senior public health specialist told a leading newspaper on condition of anonymity, that several Pakistani health specialists had raised the issues over the polio programme, but “they are either sidelined or kicked out of the programme,” also adding that the reason why the virus spreading so fast is that not every child is being reached in infected areas and the government is missing a lot of children that need to be vaccinated.
“Pakistan has this year reported 25 cVDP2 (type 2) cases, in which Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone had a share of 24,” the report said. Type 2 polio does not cause paralysis but is debilitating. The type 2 virus was eliminated in the country in 2016 and reemerged last year.
In 2019, Pakistan had reported 22 cases of type two polio cases, including 16 from KP. These were apart from type one polio cases in 2020, which are 29 in the country and 15 in KP.
“It is a money-driven programme and huge salaries and incentives are being taken by the consultants at the top level. Unfortunately, some people in the programme are very influential and answerable to none and they set their agenda ignoring local needs and requirements,” he maintained, according to The News.
Another senior official said that after working with the polio programme for many years, he realises that the elimination of polio is not a priority.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Head Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala, praised Pakistan’s efforts in tackling coronavirus, noting that the country had come up “with one of the world’s best National Response Program against the virus”.
While talking to media in Karachi during his visit to hospitals and labs, he said, “At a time when other countries were reporting cases, Pakistan was keeping the virus at bay, which is something quite praiseworthy.”
READ MORE: CORONAVIRUS DAILY UPDATES
“Pakistan has timely come up with one of the world’s best National Response Program against COVID-19 and it is being implemented very effectively. Authorities are doing their job and now it is the responsibility of the people to follow the instructions and take preventive and precautionary measures to avoid contracting the viral disease”, Dr Mahipala said while speaking to The News.
He inspected the isolation ward of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) In Karachi and was satisfied with the steps taken by the institute. He also visited Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Oja Campus and said that their lab and isolation facility was, “a world-class diagnostic and treatment facility”.
RELATED: Pakistani couple distributes free coronavirus prevention kits in UK
“At the moment, Pakistan has seven diagnostic labs which are capable of conducting 15,000 tests, but there is a need for more diagnostic facilities in case the number of suspected patients go up,” he said, adding that authorities had even established a mobile diagnostic facility that had been sent to Taftan to test and diagnose suspected cases coming from Iran. Even countries with superior health systems like South Korea and Italy had failed to contain the virus but Pakistani authorities timely responded to the pandemic and took preventive measures earlier on, he said.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Indian media reports fake claim, says top Pak army officers infected
He urged people to wash their hands with soap and use a ‘coughing etiquette’ while coughing. He also said that 67% of the patients who were tested positive with COVID-19 had cough with temperature and difficulty in breathing.
A Pakistani couple living in the United Kingdom is trying to keep those around them safe amid the coronavirus outbreak.
As per reports, the couple, who run a little confectionary shop in the Scottish town of Falkirk, is not only distributing prevention kits in their area but is also preparing those kits. They are distributing the kits free of charge to every elderly person walking inside their shop.
Jawad and his wife both also make special efforts to hand-deliver kits at the doorsteps of the elderly living in their surroundings.
Scotland is the second biggest province of the United Kingdom where the reported cases of coronavirus have surged to 85.
Earlier in the day, a newborn was diagnosed with the disease, making him/her to be the youngest person in the United Kingdom (UK) to have caught coronavirus.
North Middlesex University Hospital said two patients had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which has killed more than 5,000 people worldwide.
Pakistani social entrepreneur Hafiz Usama Tanveer has won the Commonwealth Youth Award for his exceptional contribution in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Pakistan. Tanveer was selected from 500 award nominations from 40 countries.
An official statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat stated that the awards were presented during a gathering at the Commonwealth headquarters in London. Apart from the honour, the winning candidates also received a grant of £3,000 to expand their projects in their respective regions.
Tanveer is the co-founder and Chief Technologist Founder of Pak Vitae, a social enterprise that has created water purification kits to help prevent the spread of waterborne diseases in poor communities and refugee camps. The enterprise has reached more than 11,000 people including victims of India’s Kerala flooding.
Tanveer received the honour in the ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ category.
Meanwhile, Jaya Rajwani, from Pakistan, was also shortlisted for the same award. Rajwani is the technical lead for ‘Aurat Raaj’ a social enterprise that creates technology-based products and services to educate girls on health, hygiene and safety. She was nominated in the category of ‘Gender Equality’.
Other winners include people from Fiji, Canada and Uganda where they are running successful social enterprises for the betterment of their regional communities.