Crowds crash in at Karachi vaccination centres

KARACHI: A chaotic situation occurred at the country’s biggest 24 hours vaccination center, Expo Center on Saturday when a crowd of people rushed inside the center, breaking the entrance door.

The people rushed to the vaccination center, following warnings by the Sindh government and the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Expo Centre — the biggest inoculation centre in Sindh — was soon overrun leaving a glass door broken and a security personnel injured. The other staff members and scouts at the Expo Center were also hurt during the disarray.

The problem arose when, according to the police, vaccination staff stationed in Hall No 3 at the Expo Centre staged a protest for two hours against not being paid salaries — halting the inoculations there. Similarly, the vaccination process was halted in Hall No 4 when the coronavirus vaccine cartridges were finished, police said. “The vaccination process stopped for several hours which led to citizens getting enraged.” In another vaccination centre set up at Dow Hospital, people were seen paying no heed at all to coronavirus standard operation procedures (SOPs) — sparking fears of the spread of Covid-19. The citizens tried to get ahead of each other while standing in long queues, and the administration and police failed to bring the situation under control. Similar disorder was witnessed at Civil Hospital where its administration miserably failed to manage the public coming for inoculation. Violation of social distancing and other Covid-19 SOPs were seen at different vaccination centers on Saturday.

The large turnout of people at the vaccination centres witnessed today comes after the Sindh government last week, officially asked the NCOC to approve the blocking of mobile phone sims and social media accounts of unvaccinated users. The Opposition leader of Sindh Assembly Halim Adil Sheikh also visited the Expo Center, Karachi and criticized the provincial government for its management.

The vaccination has been sent by the federal government for the people of Sindh. “The vaccination is from the federal government, but the Expo Center is under the provincial government’s administration,” he said, adding that thousands of people are in queue to get themselves inoculated, but the Sindh government hasn’t made any proper arrangements.

Following Sindh’s letter, the NCOC on July 29, set an August 31 deadline for sectors dealing with the public to get their staff vaccinated. The NCOC said students over 18 years of age, teachers, transporters, government employees, hotel and wedding hall staffers and personnel of law enforcement agencies must get themselves vaccinated before the end of the next month. The same day, hundreds of people lined up outside Karachi’s vaccination centres, the threat appearing to work.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said today that the country had recorded another vaccination record, as for the first time, total inoculations crossed 900,000 on Friday. The federal minister said 2,600 vaccination centres and 2,979 mobile units were operating across Pakistan “to make this massive campaign possible”.