Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has obliged the citizens to wear cloth masks whenever leaving home or at crowded places.

Dr Zafar Mirza in a tweet said, “N-95 mask is a specialized mask only for frontline health workers who take care of critically ill COVID-19 patients in ICUs and HDUs.”

“For the general public, face mask in crowded places can be surgical or medical masks or even home-made cloth mask but not N95 mask,” he added in a Tweet.

For general public, face mask in crowded places can be surgical or medical masks or even home-made cloth mask but not N95 mask please. N95 mask is a specialized mask ONLY for frontline health workers who take care of critically ill COVID-19 patients in ICUs and HDUs.

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— Zafar Mirza (@zfrmrza) June 1, 2020

Earlier on Sunday, SAPM Mirza in his briefing to NCOC said that the government was planning on hiring retired government doctors under contract to curb the loss of doctors in the country amidst the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

He also said that dedicated call centres for coronavirus will soon be established in all the provinces to address people’s concerns and answer their questions on the virus.

Zafar Mirza also told the NCOC that the province of Sindh and Balochistan were not ready to undertake and impose the idea of a smart lockdown like in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).