Eleven more Parliament staffers tested positive for covid-19

Islamabad: Eleven more employees of the Parliament House tested positive for covid-19, credible said on Thursday.

With these fresh covid-19 carriers, the total number of coronavirus affected employees has jumped up to 16 as five employees had already been tested positive.
The coronavrius positive employees have been asked to quarantine themselves at their homes, the sources. The covid-19 carrier employees are working in different sections of the Parliament House.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar, during a meeting on Thursday morning, have expressed concern over the covid-19 situation in the Parliament House.

To contain spread of covid-19, the Parliament House management has issued eight points SoPs bounding members of Parliament, Senate, both houses employees, and media persons to follow the SOPs.

According to the SOPs, no member Parliament and Senate will be allowed to bring his/her staff members with during session while only one member will be allowed with federal ministers and federal ministers for states but the person will be part of their staff. One grade-20 officer will be allowed in the gallery only and the officer will be part of that day agenda.

All members of the Parliament will be passed through thermal scanning in order to check their body temperature.

The Parliamentary Reporters Association will also be bound to maintain minimum number of reporters in the press gallery.

In order to ensure social distancing, chairs of the leader of the house and opposition will be kept at certain distance. In addition, all members of the Parliament will be bound to wear masks and use sanitizer as preventive measures during the sessions.

All members of the parliament will be tested for covid-19 before their entry in the Parliament session and in this regard testing facility is available in the Parliament House and Parliament Lodges dispensaries both.