COVID-19: Sindh govt to distribute soaps as part of health awareness campaign

Provincial government stresses that the exercise must be completed in five days

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Tuesday ordered every union council (UC) to purchase and distribute anti-septic soaps worth Rs100,000 among residents to promote public health awareness, cleanliness and hygiene amid the coronavirus outbreak.

A press release issued said regional directors would monitor the campaign and “and furnish documentary of each union council committee of [their] division”.

The provincial government has stressed that this exercise must be completed within five days.

Provincial Minister Syed Nasir Hussain said the Sindh government would take all possible steps that would be necessary to keep the people safe from the COVID-19.

There are 1175 Union Councils and 351 Union Committees in Sindh province.

Minister Hussain stressed that "people should not be worried about the rapid spread of the coronavirus as at this moment in time the situation was under complete control", adding that the provincial government is in a state of high alert and  Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was personally monitoring the situation.



Earlier in the day, while presiding a meeting of the health department, CM Murad directed the chief secretary to upgrade health facilities at the isolation centre in Sukkur and to make the newly constructed hospitals across the province functional within a month.

At the time of writing, the provincial authorities confirmed 10 new cases of the novel coronavirus in Sindh and Punjab, pushing the country’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 194.



Overall, Sindh has 155 confirmed cases while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 15, Balochistan has 10, Islamabad four, Gilgit-Baltistan three, Punjab 7 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has reported none till now.

PHOTO: EXPRESS