Arrangements made for evacuating GB students, families from Karachi, Lahore: CM

The testing capacity of labs in worst-hit areas is being enhanced, says Hafizur Rehman while attending NCC meeting via video link

 

Bureau Report

GILGIT: Chief Minister Hafizur Rehman has said that all pilgrims who are coming back are quarantined after screening. The confirmed patents of coronavirus are kept in isolation centres.

He shared this during a meeting of the National Coordination Committee presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan at Islamabad on Wednesday.

The chief minister and Chief Secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan Khurram Agha attended the meeting via video link.

The chief minister also said that the capacity of testing for coronavirus in Gilgit-Baltistan is being enhanced. So far, we have only one PCR machine which can process only ten to 12 suspected patients’ samples in a day. Over the next few days, the CM said, the capacity will be increased to process 100 samples a day.

Mr Rehman said labs are being set up in areas most affected by the Coronavirus for using the rapid testing kits provided by the Xinjiang government.

The Cm also informed the meeting that his government was making arrangements for evacuating and transporting students and other families stranded other provinces who want to travel to their native valleys.

He urged the federal government to instruct the provincial governments of Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to allow inter-provincial travel and facilitate citizens of Gilgit-Baltistan.

We will bring students and families from other provinces via NATCO buses to Gilgit-Baltistan where their screening will be ensured.

Talking to the High Asia Herald, the Minister and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Investment Raja Nazimul Amin said that the list of students and other people has been provided to the Chief Minister’s Media Coordinator Rasheed Arshad, who will pass on the list to the focal persons in Karachi, Lahore to facilitate these people after verification to travel to GB.

Rasheed Arshad told The High Asia Herald that the list has been handed over to the designated focal persons after verification from the relevant departments.

He said that despite the lockdown in other provinces, the stranded students have been allowed to travel to their area on the special instructions of the Prime Minister.

In this connection, GB’s Home Secretary Chaudhry Muhammad Ali Randhawa has contacted the home secretaries of Sindh, Punjab, and KP to facilitate the travel of buses from their respective cities to the mountainous region.

Addressing the NCC meeting, Chief Minister Rehman asked the federal government to direct the NLC and the FWO to continue work on the mega development projects in a controlled environment. So that the under-construction projects are completed within the stipulated time.

He said virtually the duration of work on development projects in Gilgit-Baltistan is only about four months.

Coronovirus situation

Meanwhile, Gilgit-Baltistan’s Information Minister Shams Mir said in a statement that four more coronavirus cases have been confirmed increasing the total number of affected patients to 181.

Of these, two are from Gilgit and one is from Nagar District. The patients have been kept in the isolation rooms and special attention is being paid to their diet so that their immune system is strengthened.