KARACHI: The Sindh government on Saturday announced a further relaxation in coronavirus restrictions by allowing primary students back into classrooms from tomorrow (Monday), but will close vaccination centres across the province today (Sunday) because of acute supply chain obstacles.
The decisions were made in a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Corona, chaired by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. Provincial ministers Saeed Ghani, Azra Pechuho and Murtaza Wahab attended, along with other senior officials and health experts.
The chief minister was briefed that the Covid-19 positivity ratio was coming down in the province and the current rate is 3.9 per cent. However, it was “shared with concern” that the situation in Karachi (8.8 per cent) and Hyderabad (4.3 per cent) “is still not good”. “The situation will continue to improve when people follow SOPs,” Shah said.
It was also decided to reopen shrines, amusement parks, swimming pools and indoor gyms from June 28.
The committee was also briefed on the pandemic situation and the shortage of vaccines across the country, which has intensified in the past few days. The meeting was told that so far 3.2 million doses of vaccines had been received. Of them, 2.8 million were used and about 370,000 were left Shah, keeping in view the available stock of the vaccine doses, decided to close all vaccination centres “only on this Sunday (June 20)”.
Geo News reported that Karachi was also facing severe shortages, with 80 per cent of the provincial capital’s vaccination centres having no more stock of vaccines.
The situation was similar in Lahore, with Geo News reporting vaccines drying up in Lahore’s Expo Centre mass vaccination unit for Pakistanis seeking to go abroad. The centre’s Hall 3 was closed because of the large crowds there. Those who had gathered there were told to return in a week.
While the report does not mention which jab the people were there for, the European Union and most Gulf countries are thus far only considering travellers who have received Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines as being vaccinated. Of the above, Pakistan has approved Pfizer and AstraZeneca and received some doses as part of the Covax programme. The vaccines that are prevalent in the country are the Chinese-developed Sinopharm, Sinovac and Cansino jabs.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Dr Faisal Sultan gave an update on the supply chain, tweeting that available doses in the country were over 1 million, and by today (June 20), 1.55 million doses are expected to arrive, by Tuesday (June 22), 2.5 million and from June 23 to 30, “2-3 million + 400,000 Pakvac (Cansino)”. “Therefore any pressure in the system & local/distribution issues will be eased by Mon/Tue, Inshallah,” he said.
Pakistan has so far fully vaccinated 3.3 million people, and about 6.8 million have received one dose. Total doses administered so far are 12.7 million.
