Balochistan not to allow public transport resumption.

Byline: Saleem Shahid

QUETTA -- The Balochistan government has decided to not allow the resumption of public transport in the province and discouraged people from travelling in trains to halt the fast transmission of coronavirus.

A high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Jam Khan Alyani on Monday expressed its serious reservations over the opening of road transport and rail service, saying, 'resuming transport without SOPs would cause the spread of Covid-19 in villages and remote parts of the province' and the government had therefore decided to not resume inter-city and inter-provincial public transport.

CM Alyani appealed to people to refrain from travelling, saying that the 'people of Quetta should not go out of Quetta and people from other areas should also not come to the provincial capital as the number of infected persons are far more in Quetta who could then infect other people coming outside of Quetta.'

The Pakistan Railways will resume only one train Jaffar Express from Quetta to Rawalpindi from Wednesday onwards. Quetta Express and Bolan Mail will remain suspended till further orders, according to a railways official based in Quetta.

Meeting fears passengers travelling without observing SOPs may transmit disease to villages

The meeting discussed measures for further improvement in health facilities to deal with the outbreak in the province. Incharge Balochistan Command and Operation Centre Imran Gichki briefed the meeting on the overall situation say that 94 per cent cases in Balochistan that had been reported were through local transmission, while only six per cent cases were people who had travelled abroad.

He also said that...