Govt working on SOPs to reopen restaurants

The government on Tuesday said it is working on the standard operating procedures to allow restaurants to resume dining in on their premises. 

The announcement was made by the Special Assistant to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan who said that “the government has sought input from the relevant quarters to finalise a strategy to revive the hotel and restaurant industry and hopefully SOPs will be ready very soon.”

He said the decision to allow restaurants to reopen comes as the number of cases in the country has fallen over the last few weeks. The government said it has reduced the number of Covid-19 cases by 25 percent in the last three weeks. However, opposition parties and the independent observers claim that the number is in fact rising and the government’s statistical success comes after it cut down the testing across the country. 

Awan, on the other hand, claimed that PM Imran Khan’s decision to adopt smart lockdowns in the country was monumental in decreasing the number of Covid-19 cases in the country. 

“The government has introduced the largest ever financial assistance package during lockdown, and billions of rupees have been disbursed among deserving people” added Awan. 

The government is gradually lifting lockdowns and easing restrictions across the country to spur economic activity and help the masses that have unemployed over the last two quarters. 

The main force behind the policy decisions regarding Covid-19, the National Command and Control Centre, also allowed opening of smaller cattle markets across the country while mandating strict observance of standard operating procedures. 

Experts, however, warn that the cattle markets could become the new nursery for Covid-19 cases and could push up the number of cases if the SOPs are not followed diligently. 

With restaurants reopening, the number of cases could increase further as more and more people gather into smaller places.