KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to restrict unnecessary movement of people, on foot or in vehicles, after 8pm from Tuesday (today) in the wake of an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases in the province.

The decision to this effect was taken at an extensive sitting of the Provincial Task Force, which was chaired by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, held at CM House on Monday.

The meeting was told that during the past 24 hours, Sindh had detected 1,529 new cases, Punjab reported 802 more cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 470, Islam­abad 106, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 69, Balochistan 66 and Gilgit-Baltistan 18. This showed that Sindh had the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country, the chief minister said.

During last week (May 17 to 23) Karachi’s detection rate was 12.67pc, Hyderabad had detection rate of 10.79pc and the rest of the province 4.53pc. So far in May 261 patients of coronavirus have died, which is higher than the death toll in March and April, when the province had recorded 151 and 154 deaths, respectively.

While appealing to the people to stay indoors in their own interest and in the interest of other citizens, the chief minister decided that no public movement be allowed in the city after 8pm from Tuesday. He directed the administration and the police to prevent people from unnecessary movement in the wake of hike in cases.

He directed the relevant authorities to ensure shops should close at 6pm after which two hours would be given to the people to return homes. “After 8pm, police will place barriers on roads to discourage unnecessary public movement,” CM Shah said, while asking the district administration to turn off lights of public parks at 8pm.

While discussing preventive measures, the chief minister directed the labour and industries minister to talk to industrialists or their associations to support mass vaccination in the industrial areas. He warned the administration to be strict in implementation of the Covid-related SOPs and the restrictions the government had notified, otherwise, he would take strict action against them. “I’ll personally pay surprise visits to [different parts of] the city to witness the implementation of the restrictions,” he said.

Provincial ministers Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Jam Ikram, Adviser on Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Sindh IG Police Mushtaq Maher, Karachi Commissioner Naveed Shaikh, Additional IG Imran Minhas, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, School Education Secretary Ahmed Bukhsh Narejo, Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Dr Abdul Bari, Dr Faisal, Dr Sara Khan of the World Health Organisation, Dr Sajjad Qasier of the Pakistan Medical Association, besides representatives of Corps-5, Rangers and other relevant institutions, attended the meeting.

Indian variant not found Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan told AP that the Covid-19 variant that devastated neighbouring India, causing record infections and deaths, had not yet been found in Pakistan, but “We are not out of the woods yet” and people should get vaccinated if they want to return to a normal life.

Dr Sultan said Pakistan was still in the middle of a third wave of infections that began earlier this year, flooding hospitals with Covid patients but he hoped the tide of new cases would subside in the coming weeks.

“I don’t foresee an India-like situation in Pakistan,” he observed.

The PM’s aide said Pakistan avoided a similar scenario to India due to addition of thousands of oxygenated beds to hospitals and the increase in production of oxygen as part of a contingency plan. He said the government would try to vaccinate a third of the country population by yearend. Pakistan was offering free vaccinations to all, with no discrimination between rich and poor, he said, adding that the government had so far vaccinated more than five million people.

The government offers the Chinese-made Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines as well as AstraZeneca doses to the people.

Dr Sultan said Pakistan after months of wait received its first supply of Covid-19 vaccines through the UN-backed Covax initiative, over 1.2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, earlier this month. However, he said, Pakistan was relying on vaccines purchased from China and enough funds were available for such purchases.

His comments came hours after the country reported one of the lowest single-day death tolls from Covid-19 in recent months, with 57 fatalities. Pakistan has registered about 903,600 cases and 20,308 confirmed deaths since the pandemic began in early last year. The government has repeatedly expressed grief over the Covid-19 situation in India, where authorities reported 4,454 more deaths in a single day, bringing India’s death toll from the virus to 303,720 out of 27 million cases detected so far.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2021