KARACHI: Lauding the Sindh government’s efforts for speeding up the vaccinations in the province, the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) announced on Saturday that the provincial government will end its nine-day lockdown on August 9 (Monday).
A statement was issued by NCOC following a joint session, which was chaired by NCOC head and Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, and attended by Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, NCOC National Coordinator Lieutenant General Hamood-Uz-Zaman Khan and others.
The coronavirus situation in Sindh, particularly in Karachi, was discussed at length, according to the statement. It said that a need for better coordination and an enhanced interaction at all levels was emphasised.
It was decided that Sindh would follow the non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI)- based guidelines the forum had announced for 13 high infection rate cities earlier this week, which include Karachi and Hyderabad. The matter of the reopening of Sindh’s schools and leftover exams will be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the Inter Provincial Education Ministerial Conference (IPEMC).
The forum also recognised the need for a special emphasis on the implementation of safety precautions in view of Muharram and when the lockdown is lifted on August 9. It was decided that “smart lockdowns” in high disease prevalence areas will be enforced to curb the spread of the virus.
Sindh had imposed the lockdown based on high positivity rate, hospital inflow and pressure on critical care occupancy especially in Karachi from July 31 to August 8. However, the positivity ratio has come down from 13.7 percent to 11.9 percent in the province, prompting the government to end the lockdown despite warnings from health experts.
The Sindh chief minister, while briefing the meeting, said that the positivity ratio in Karachi had come down to 21 percent from 24 percent reported last week.
The high-level meeting was informed that even though cases are decreasing in Karachi, the fourth wave is gripping other parts of Pakistan, especially the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region, which is now reporting a positivity ratio of 26 percent.
Sindh’s overall positivity rate is 13 per cent, while infections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are on the rise.
Murad informed the NCOC that Sindh has entered week six of the fourth wave, which now seems to be subsiding gradually.
He added that 67 per cent of the infections in the provincial capital could be attributed to travellers returning from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Peshawar, and Islamabad and said the provincial capital has been hit hard particularly by the Delta variant of the pandemic.
At least 1,210 patients are in critical condition in the city and the fatality rate has witnessed an increase in Karachi, said Murad.
Speaking about the availability of hospital beds to cater for coronavirus patients, Murad said at present, there were a total of 1,120 oxygen beds, including 537 beds provided by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The Sindh government installed 583 more oxygen beds in hospitals from its own resources, he added. According to the CM, 100 beds are available at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, 75 beds at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, 100 beds at Eidgah Maternity, 150 beds at Expo, and 158 beds at specialised hospitals for Covid.
Another 4,720 new infections were also logged over the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s overall count to 1.06 million, with 959,491 recoveries. The total number of active cases in the South Asian country is currently 79,837.
Despite an expedited nationwide vaccination drive, Pakistan is reeling from a deadly fourth wave of coronavirus, seeing cases in the range of 4,000-5,000 for 11 days straight.
Over 33 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country to date, and anyone 18 or over is eligible for vaccination. However, only a little more than 8 million people are fully vaccinated in the country of over 220 million.
