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Pakistan coronavirus update: Govt rules out complete nationwide lockdown

Despite a continued spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases, Pakistan's National Coordination Committee (NCC) has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown in the country to stem the virus spread

Coronavirus testing

Coronavirus testing

IANS Islamabad

Despite a continued spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases, Pakistan's National Coordination Committee (NCC) has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown in the country to stem the virus spread.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the NCC on Tuesday presided by Prime Minister Imran Khan, reports Dawn news.

The NCC also endorsed all the measures announced late last month by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), which included strict implementation of the standard operating procedures (SOP) at public places and reduction in timings for markets and commercial activities.

It also decided to continue the smart lockdown policy.

 

Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Khan said: "We have decided that we will not close down businesses and industries. In case of the rise in coronavirus cases, we will close only those things which do not damage the industries.

"Otherwise, we will run the businesses and industries, but with SOPs."

He also appealed to the public to wear face masks to avoid spread of the pandemic.

According to the NCOC, Pakistan reported a total of 1,167 new coronavirus cases and 14 deaths in the last 24 hours, Dawn news reported.

With the latest tallies, the country's overall caseload and death toll stood at 337,029 and 6,857, respectively.

Most of the new cases were reported in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad, Gilgit, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Peshawar and Quetta.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Nov 04 2020 | 11:16 AM IST

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