Coronavirus cases surge amid SOPs breach.

KARACHI/LAHORE -- Pakistan sees a record jump in Covid-19 cases only days after the reopening of markets, as blatant violation of the government's standard operating procedures (SOPs) continued on Wednesday despite repeated warnings by the relevant authorities and sealing of some overcrowded shopping areas.

With the detection of 2,468 more cases in one day, the tally of confirmed cases of the deadly virus across the country jumped to 35,384.

Neither social distancing nor other SOPs were being maintained at most of the markets across Punjab that reported 1,362 cases, which is over 55pc of the total new cases found across the country.

While Punjab CM Usman Buzdar expressed concern over contravention of precautionary measures in markets after easing of lockdown and stressed that citizens must not go out without any need, the authorities in Sindh took strict action and sealed the shops over violation of the defined SOPs by both traders and shoppers.

Major actions were taken in Hyderabad's Resham Bazaar and Karachi's Zainab Market where the authorities sealed many shops.

In the second half of the day, senior officials of the Karachi municipal administration took a round of the Zainab Market in Saddar. As no precautionary measures were being observed by the traders and buyers, the situation pushed the authorities to take the bold decision of sealing the shops in view of public safety.

'Assistant commissioner Asif Chandio ordered immediately closure of the market and then sealed it,' said an official at the Karachi commissioner office. 'The municipal administration visited more than 200 shops and found no salesman at any of the shops wearing a mask. The same case was with the buyers who thronged the market without following the...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT