Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Kabul (BNA) The first meeting of the State Committee for Public Awareness to Prevent Corona virus outbreaks was held at the Government Media and Information Center on Monday.
The committee was formed on Sunday based on a Presidential decree and General Director of Office of Public and Strategic Affairs (OPSA) was appointed the Chairman of the committee.
According to the decree, the Director General of Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), Deputy Ministers of Public Health, Information and Culture, Haj and Religious Affairs, Refugees and Repatriations, Interior Affairs, National Defense, Women's Affairs, Higher Education, Education, the Independent Directorate Local Governance and Kabul Municipality were assigned as the members of the committee.
The purpose of the committee is to improve coordination on information dissemination and release of audio-visual and info graphs to raise public awareness about COVID-19.
Part of the decree states that the State Committee for Public Awareness is required to collect and share information publicly on corona virus outbreak on daily basis, as well as to provide text, audio and video messages based on public awareness practices and broadcast and amplify them through mass media and social media.
Waheed Omer, OPSA general director and chairman of the committee for public Awareness to Prevent Corona Virus, called on its members to introduce one of their authoritative staffs to the Committee secretariat to better coordinate the affairs of the committee.
He said it was a clear and decisive decision by the government to prevent all ceremonies where large number of people could gather, and called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Kabul Municipality to provide clear instruction to all wedding hall officials to stop events immediately until the end of the situation.
Omer emphasized that the same decision was made regarding the swimming pools and public baths and urged the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Kabul Municipality to act decisively in this regard. He stressed combating the outbreak of the Corona virus is one of the priorities of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Health, the number of positive cases of corona virus in Afghanistan has reached 21.
