People will now be punished for not wearing face masks when going out in public, especially in shops, mosques and while using public transport, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said.

“We already made the use of masks compulsory before but we have seen that people are not following the government’s SOPs,” he said in a media briefing on Sunday, adding that the authorities will now strictly monitor the public.

Mirza said that a check on SOP implementation has already begun in markets, factories and mosques. “Action is being taken against all those who are violating orders,” he said.

“People will also be punished now if they’re seen without masks in the said places,” he said, adding that the punishment will be decided by each province.

Mirza assured that the government keeps updating its guidelines according to the ones given by the World Health Organisation. “All these are available on our website covid.gov.pk,” the special assistant said.

He revealed that wearing masks was a 40% to 60% way to prevent the novel coronavirus.

According to Mirza, of the total deaths that have taken place due to the deadly virus so far, 74% are of people aged above 50. The same amount of deaths have also been seen in people who have any other kind of disease.

“It is very important that you protect the aged people of your family and those who have a health history such as diabetes or high blood pressure,” the assistant said.

Mirza added that in the last 24 hours, Pakistan has conducted a total of 23,400 tests of which 4,960 people tested positive. “This shows that 24.4% people of the total number had the virus.”

So far more than 600,000 tests have been conducted nationwide. “Thankfully, the recovery rate of patients in the country is 34%,” he said.

Presently, more than 5,000 people are in hospitals across the country of which 260 are on the ventilator. “In Pakistan, 75% ventilators are free at the moment, yet we hear news of hospitals being overburdened,” Mirza said.

For this, the government has made a resource management system and introduced the Pak Nighban app through which people will get to know details about beds, ventilators and other health facilities at hospitals.

“We have news that last night, a total of six patients got treatment in time because of the system,” he said, promising that in the upcoming days the system will further help them.

He regretted all the lives lost because of the virus so far. On an average, 72 people in Pakistan lose their lives due to COVID-19 every day.

“Each life lost grieves us,” Mirza said, reiterating that for this purpose it’s necessary that people follow the guideline given by the government.