Many people heaved a sigh of relief after Pakistan Railways partially resumed its services on Wednesday. Fifteen trains have been given permission to operate and take people to their homes at the time of Eid-ul-Fitr. The department has been taking only 60% of bookings through online bookings. Passengers have been asked to bring their own masks, gloves, hand sanitisers and soap with them.
As the coornavirus fear subsided in South Korea, the schools reopened on Wednesday after a delay of two months. Students lined up for temperature checks and were given sanitisers to wash their hands as they entered school premises. South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the virus — at one point the second-worst hit nation.
The Private Schools Association of Karachi has demanded that it should be allowed to reopen schools after Eid. Tariq Shah, the associations’s president appealed that schools should also be granted permission to reopen amid SOPs as everything else in the country is resuming. He further added that according to an international study, students between the age of one to 17 have strong immunity so there is no point in keeping the schools closed.
Pakistan’s shopping malls and markets to stay open on weekends until the Eid, clarified Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Tuesday. He added that they are looking out for the entire country and they cant close their eyes and ears to what is happening in the country. On Monday, the court ordered all provinces to open shopping malls so that people can prepare for Eidul Fitr.
United States President Donald Trump recognised the services of a 10-year-old Pakistani-American girl named Laila during a ceremony to honour ‘coronavirus heroes’. According to the US Embassy in Islamabad, Laila and her friends are part of a girl scouts group from Maryland and donated 100 boxes of cookies to nurses and firefighters.The ceremony paid tribute to Americans who have been helping people in the front line fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Pakistan will be manufacturing the anti viral drug Remdsivir within two months according to Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza. The drug will also be available for COVID-19 patients in Pakistan. Dr Mirza said that five companies in the world had been granted the license to manufacture the drug, Pakistani company being one of them.
A cafe in Germany’s Berlin is using pool noodles to ensure social distancing, while mostly public places use floor marks. Every customer that arrives at Café Rothe is given a hat to wear that consists of colourful pool noodles that stop people from closing in on each other. Cafe Rothe’s motto is: “Keep the social distance.”
The Sindh health ministry has decided to pay one month’s basic salary as a bonus to medical professionals in the province. Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) said that it suggested that government pay an extra allowance of Rs1,000 to doctors and Rs500 per day to nurses who are treating the patients of coronavirus. The decisions were taken in a meeting between Sindh Health Minister Dr Azara Pechuhu and a delegation of the PPA.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned that the novel coronavirus may never go away and become an endemic – like HIV. Also that the world must learn to live with. As the world gradually eases the stringent measures it took to stem the outbreak’s spread, the WHO says the virus may never be wiped out completely.
The top US expert on infectious diseases told a Senate panel on Tuesday that it’s still too early to expect a coronavirus vaccine or treatment. Dr Aanthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that the idea of treatment or vaccine to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be a bridge too far.