The federal government on Thursday set August 31 as the deadline for anti-Covid vaccination, following which only vaccinated staff and people would be allowed to enter both public, private sector offices, businesses and high-risk sectors.
“This is being done for you. This is not a punishment but acknowledgement to make you realize that you play an important role in this society and economy. And we, on a priority basis want that your health is not compromised so that your livelihood continues and economy also continues,” Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said while addressing a press conference.
The federal minister was flanked by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan.
Asad Umar, who is also Chairman of the National Command and Operation Centre, said that NCOC had already made a decision earlier that unvaccinated people would be barred from travelling in domestic flights from August 1, likewise teachers and staff would also not be allowed to enter educational institutions unvaccinated from this date.
He said that we cannot take risk of children, adding that around 80 per cent of teachers have already been vaccinated.
The minister said the ban would be extended from August 31 on other sectors and places where the risk of coronavirus spread is high due to excessive assembling of people, including the transport sector, markets and public-dealing offices.
“These are all facilities where people visit in bulk and have to get in touch with people there and are exposed to the virus,” he said.
The minister said the drivers, who provide pick and drop facilities to schoolchildren would be required to vaccinate themselves while those travelling on public transport should also follow the deadline.
The students with an age of over 18 years would also have to vaccinate themselves to attend educational institutions while employees of private and public sector entities could not enter their office unvaccinated after August 31.
In addition, people in high-risk areas including hotels, restaurants, marriage halls would also have to get vaccinated in addition to those of law enforcement agencies, banks, NADRA, markets, shopping malls and chain stores.
He expressed the hope that the Pakistani nation would come out of this challenge successfully and would become an example of success among developing nations in dealing with the Covid-19 and also in the anti-coronavirus vaccination drive.
Talking about the ongoing vaccination drive, the minister said that the government intended to mount the vaccination target to one million people in one day adding that the highest number of 849,692 people were vaccinated on July 28, following the vaccination of 778,000 on July 27 and 680,000 on July 26.
He said that the single dose vaccination also touched the highest number of 637,000 in one day, adding that in provinces one day record of 500,000 vaccinations was made in Punjab, 169,000 in Sindh, 111,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 18,500 in Balochistan.
The minister maintained that people should realize that whatever they did, have an effect; if they follow standard operating procedures, the coronavirus would definitely come down and if they ignore it, the pandemic would spread.
He stated when SOPs were followed in Ramadan and Eid, positive results were witnessed as the pandemic had gone down, but people take it easy when it recedes and consequently, it climbs up accordingly.
Asad Umar, however, added that implementation of SOPs was not the only solution, the people needed to be vaccinated as early as possible.
He said that the government had adopted a prudent strategy by striking a balance between controlling coronavirus and allowing economic activity across the country. He stressed that complete lockdowns did not work in India and Bangladesh and had a very negative effect.
The minister said the government had the comprehensive framework and was taking data-based decisions. However, he said there were problems in compliance of coronavirus SoPs all across the country.
Giving data about the enforcement of Coronavirus SoPs, the minister said that 56.4 percent followed SoPs in Federal Capital, while the percentage was 46.6 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by Azad Jammu and Kashmir with 42.7 per cent, Gilgit Baltistan with 37.4 per cent, Punjab with 38 and Sindh and Balochistan 33 per cent.
LOCKDOWN EXPECTED IN KARACHI:
The Sindh government, on the other hand, is mulling a complete lockdown in Karachi as the city’s hospitals are “nearing saturation point”, members from the provincial task force on coronavirus told Geo News on Thursday.
The task force’s members said the final decision to impose a lockdown in the port city would be taken in a meeting tomorrow at 11 am, with Chief CM Murad Ali Shah in the chair.
Provincial government officials told Geo News that medical experts within the task force have asked for a complete 14-day lockdown in the city.
“Hospitals are nearing a saturation point with cases in Karachi rising rapidly,” the task force members said, adding that the Sindh government was consulting stakeholders on the imposition of a lockdown.
Representatives of the Pakistan Medical Association have already demanded a complete lockdown across Sindh, the members said.
The task force members said more than 370 patients had been admitted to hospitals across Karachi in just the last two days. “The pressure on oxygen supply is increasing with the influx of patients.”
Businesses will be shut and a complete ban on public movement will be imposed during the lockdown, the task force members said.
On a positive note, the Sindh government’s suggestion to block SIM cards of people who have not been vaccinated seems to be working, with hundreds of people lined up outside Karachi’s vaccination centres, Geo News reported.
A long queue of people could be seen outside Expo Centre, the biggest vaccination centre in the city.
with additional input from APP
Its not legal and these puppets of the narrative set by people who OWN them, and perpetuating these measures are just cementing their own stupidity and will have to face the expected backlash. This is coercion… and from free donuts and coffee to getting vaccinated at gunpoint sums up the fact they will try anything to get people jabbed with a vaccine for a virus that is clearly not a natural occurrence. What about the people who’s immunity is playing its part…. WE DONT NEED YOUR EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE AND WILL NOT SUBJECT OURSELVES TO SOMETHING WE WILL NOT BE A PART OF! Prepare for legal ramifications!