CHAGAI: Local authorities have decided to disinfect Taftan town and screen all local residents who work as daily wage earners for coronavirus so that they could be used for assisting the local administration in facilitating Pakistanis returning from Iran through the Taftan border.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the town committee rest house in Taftan on Monday. Presided over by Balo­chistan government’s focal person on the coronavirus prevention Mir Umair Mohammad Hasni, the meeting was attended by Secretary of Communications and Works Noor-ul-Ameen Mengal, Com­missioner of Rakhshan Division Ayaz Mandokhail, Chagai Deputy Commissioner Agha Sher Zaman, Additional Deputy Commissioner Javed Domki, Taftan Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Waris, Frontier Corps Taftan Rifles wing commander Lieutenant Colonel Waqar Ahmed and others.

The meeting reviewed affairs related to the Taftan border and the coronavirus outbreak. It thoroughly discussed arrangem­ents made for quarantine centres, affairs related to healthcare, security and sanitation. It also discussed measures being taken to prevent local transmission of Covid-19 in Taftan and surrounding areas.

Mr Hasni directed the officials concerned to make arrangements for spray in all residential areas of Taftan town to disinfect them and for screening of all those who were working in and outside of quarantine centres in the border town.

Mr Mengal, Mr Zaman and Lt Col Ahmed briefed the meeting on steps being taken to accommodate Pakistani citizens returning from Iran in quarantine centres and their transportation to their areas after completion of their quarantine period.

The meeting was informed that 30 people who had been quarantined in Taftan would soon be sent to Gilgit-Baltistan by a flight.

Meanwhile, local tribesmen met Mr Hasni and informed him about their problems caused by the closure of the Taftan border.