KARACHI: Sindh’s Coronavirus Task Force on Thursday decided to keep the ongoing restrictions to contain surge in virus cases in the province.
A session of the task force chaired by Chief Minister of Sindh decided to hold another meeting on Saturday to reassess the pandemic situation in the province.
Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah stated that 20,421 samples were tested for the contagion yesterday, 9000 among them were from Karachi. Overall 2,076 new cases were diagnosed, indicating a detection rate of 10.2 percent, the Sindh CM said.
“The rate of positive cases in Karachi remained 16.82 percent,” Murad Ali Shah said. “On Eid ul Fitr (May 13) total 1232 coronavirus cases were diagnosed, while after the Eid on May 19, total 2076 cases detected in a day,” the chief minister told the meeting.
“These numbers showing a rising trend of Covid-19 cases in Sindh,” Shah stated.
“It seems difficult to provide relief in restrictions in the province amid rising number of cases,” Sindh chief minister said.
The task force will review the situation in province in Saturday meeting. “It will soften restrictions if the cases decline but if the cases surge it will further tighten the restrictions,” the task force decided in the meeting.
A representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) will also give recommendations to tackle the situation in the Saturday session.
A day earlier, the National Command Operation Center announced the lifting of a number of restrictions, including the reopening of educational institutions, in districts where the positivity rate is less than five percent and the resumption of outdoor dining, imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
B.1.617 — the highly contagious United Kingdom variant of coronavirus — now accounts for up to 70 percent of nationwide Covid-19 infections, a research centre studying the disease in the country reported earlier this month.
“There is a 60 percent to 70 percent prevalence of the UK variant in Pakistan (today),” Professor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry, director at the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, told Reuters, adding that this figure was 2 percent in January.
The ICCBS works on Covid-19 samples and provides research and data to the government.
Over the weekend, the government allowed the reopening of inter-provincial and inter-city public transport, which has remained shut for a week during the Eid holidays from May 9 to 15.
A meeting of the NCOC also allowed the reopening of all government and private offices with 50 percent attendance from Monday (May 17).
However, despite allowing normal life back on track, the body made it clear that the ban on tourism activities will continue until further notice. All tourism sites including the northern areas will remain closed in the light of the decision.
However, tourists were still seen travelling towards tourist points during the Eid holidays. But they were not allowed to travel further and were returned by the authorities mid-way.
The government launched a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive for the general public, starting with older people, in March. The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80.
The authorities began the vaccination with Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino jabs. Private hospitals in major cities are using the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine that has been imported by a local pharmaceutical company.
The government has also approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca and China’s CoronaVac vaccines. It received its first shipment of AstraZeneca doses through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility earlier this month.
The government is aiming to ramp up the immunisation campaign in the summer and expects to receive 13.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of June.
