Targeted curbs likely in urban centres: Asad

ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Asad Umar on Sunday indicated that to control the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, the government might impose lockdowns in selected sectors of the country’s urban centres.

The decision in this regard, he said, would be made in a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan today (Monday). “We will present recommendations to the Prime Minister in the meeting where it will be decided which sectors will be closed down and to what extent,” Umar said addressing a press conference here after chairing the meeting of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Umar was flanked by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan. The minister said the Indian variant was spreading 60 per cent to 70 per cent faster than the Alpha variant which itself was spreading 70 percent faster than the normal virus. “It is highly transmissible and can be transmitted from the patient to all family members in no time.”

He said the situation in India, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Indonesia and other regional countries was not good so far as the spread of the disease is concerned. For the last few days, over 1,600 to 1,700 people were succumbing to the Delta variant daily in Indonesia.

Therefore in order to control this variant, the minister asked the people to follow guidelines. “The biggest weapon against the pandemic is in the hands of common people, who could help stopping the pandemic by following guidelines issued by the government,” he added.

Umar said vaccination was the only way to get rid of this disease and the federal government was spending Rs200 billion on vaccination. He said Pakistan had set new daily records of vaccinations throughout the six days of this week.

The minister pointed out that the purpose of the news conference was to brief that the success against Covid-19 was the centralised effort through the forum of NCOC. “NCOC is an apolitical forum and has equal regard for all federating units,” he said adding NCOC “will continue to follow the same strategy and pattern to cope with the contagion”.

Umar said some five million doses were administered in the past six days with over 900,000 doses administered in the past 24 hours. It took 113 days to achieve the first 10 million doses target of the vaccinated population.