297,070 locations disinfected to curb virus

Local govt dept ensuring cleanliness at 311 quarantine centres in Punjab

LAHORE: The Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department has set up 3,027 hand washing points and disinfected about 297,070 public places to protect the people of the province from the novel coronavirus.

The department said on Thursday that it has been working in close collaboration with all government institutions, particularly the health departments, Pakistan Army, police, Rescue 1122 and disaster management authorities, to combat coronavirus and ensure public safety at large.

The LG&CD department has taken measures to protect the people by setting up hand washing facilities at public places and disinfecting premises of hospitals, railway stations, bus stands, fruit and vegetable markets, cattle markets and roads, while also helping people ensure social distancing.



It has helped establish and manage quarantine centres, deployed sanitary workers for maintaining cleanliness, formed special teams for the burial of victims of the virus and provided continuous logistic support to the district administrations and local governments.

Since March 22, a total of 3,027 hand washing points had been set up for the people in all nine divisions of Punjab, including 728 in Lahore, 495 in Multan, 357 in Gujranwala, 343 in Faisalabad, 291 in Sargodha, 211 in Dera Ghazi Khan, 206 in Sahiwal, 201 in Bahawalpur and 169 in Rawalpindi.

The public places that were disinfected include 62,884 locations in Lahore and 32,383 in Gujranwala, in addition to 31,880 places in Multan, 25,420 in Bahawalpur, 25,748 in Sargodha, 22,608 in Rawalpindi, 16,947 in Sahiwal, 15,779 in DG Khan and 12,621 in Faisalabad.

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To ensure implementation of a queue management system (QMS) while maintaining social distance at busy locations, around 256,000 public places were marked with circles, including shops, banks and ATMs. The LG&CD has also provided assistance to the local administrations for setting up 311 quarantine centres across Punjab and is helping in their daily operations, including 62 in Lahore, 57 in Gujranwala, 52 in Rawalpindi, 39 in Faisalabad, 26 in Sargodha, 25 in Multan, 21 in Bahawalpur, 18 in Sahiwal and 15 in DG Khan. A total of 1,400 personnel had been deployed for maintaining cleanliness at the quarantine centres.

The department arranged 13,783 safety kits for the sanitary workers. Moreover, 342 teams had been constituted for the burial of coronavirus victims. So far, the teams had managed the burial of 157 people across the province.

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“Sanitary workers are considered an asset and heroes of the departments, hence screening of sanitary workers from waste management companies and local governments is being regularly done to ensure their health,” said LG&CD Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2020.