KP govt considers shutting down govt offices

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesperson, Ajmal Khan Wazir, on Tuesday said there was a proposal to shut the government offices in the province amid the threat of coronavirus spread.

Addressing a press conference, Wazir said the final decision would be made after reviewing list of the unnecessary staff.

However, he added, that the 15-day holidays had been given to the employees, who were more 50 years of age, as well as the pregnant women and those suffering from other ailments.

The chief secretary had been directed to prepare the staff list, Wazir said.

He said a total of 65 tests had so far been conducted, of which 15 were positive and 33 negative with the results of 17 not received yet.

Describing the various reports circulated on social media as bogus, the spokesperson said the people diagnosed with the coronavirus were those who had arrived via the Taftan border from Iran.

Another 225 pilgrims reaching the province on Tuesday (today) would be kept in quarantine at Dera Ismail Khan where proper quarantine arrangements had been made at the Gomal University, he informed the journalists.

Wazir said there was special 200-bed ward at the Mufti Mehmood Memorial Teaching Hospital, DI Khan, while a 150-bed quarantine facility had been established the Levies Centre, Shahkas in Jamrud, Khyber district.

He said the person, who died at the Hayatabad Medical Complex on Monday, was not a corona patient.

Wazir said Chief Minister Mehmood Khan had already announced two-month reduction in the sentences of prisoners.

He said the Auqaf Department had directed the imams to lead the Friday prayers in two shifts so that the crowd could be reduced at mosques.

The spokesperson said all the recruitment tests, except those for the police, had been postponed.