KARACHI: At least 103 restaurants and six marriage halls have been closed due to non-compliance of health protocols or standard operating procedures (SOPs), according to the National Command and Operation Centre.
The country’s nerve centre in the fight against coronavirus said that it has also instructed all provinces, including Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad to ensure health guidelines and abidance of protocols.
The NCOC also cautioned the authorities that restaurants and marriage halls were “emerging as the epicentre of the disease”.
Federal minister Asad Umar also warned that indoor restaurants and marriage halls were emerging as “high contributors to the COVID-19 spread”.
“Indoor restaurants and marriage halls are emerging as high contributors to Covid spread. NCOC has directed all provinces and federating units to crack down on standard operating procedure (SOP) violations in these places,” he said on Twitter.
“We must not allow the irresponsible behaviour of some to put the health of everyone at risk,” he said.
Karachi over the last week has witnessed an increase in infections; on September 30, an NCOC meeting was apprised of the worrying rise in the number of daily Covid-19 cases reported across the country, especially in the port city.
