Parents’ consent not needed to vaccinate students above 12 years

The Sindh government has declared that the coronavirus vaccination of all school-going children over the age of 12 years in the province has become mandatory, regardless of the consent of their parents or otherwise for the purpose.

The directives to this effect were communicated to the secretary of the Sindh School Education Department on Thursday by the home department through a letter with the following subject: “Vaccination of all school-going children above the age of 12 years”.

The letter has been sent to convey on an urgent basis the latest orders of the Sindh chief secretary for carrying out the Covid-19 vaccination of school-going children across the province.

The letter reads: “I am directed to refer to the subject noted above, and to communicate the directives of the worthy Sindh chief secretary that the vaccination of all school-going children above the age of 12 years is mandatory and no child is to be left unvaccinated, regardless of any consent or otherwise. It is accordingly requested to inform all the field officers for necessary compliance with the above directives of the worthy Sindh chief secretary.”

Covid kills six more

Six more people have died due to Covid-19 and 343 others have tested positive for the disease during the past 24 hours in Sindh, with the death toll due to the viral coronavirus infection reaching 7,563 in the province.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said in his daily situation report on the health emergency on Thursday that 13,245 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, resulting in 343 people, or three per cent of those who were screened, being diagnosed with Covid-19.

The provincial government has so far conducted 6,374,344 tests, which have resulted in 468,140 positive cases, which means that 7.3 per cent of those screened have been found to be infected, he added.

Shah said that after the latest deaths, the rate of the diagnosed people who have lost their fight with Covid-19 stands at two per cent in Sindh. He said that 11,574 people across the province are currently infected: 11,330 are in self-quarantine at home, 25 at isolation centres and 219 at hospitals, while 218 patients are in critical condition, of whom 11 are on life support.

He added that 306 more people have recovered during the past 24 hours, increasing the number of cured patients to 449,003, which shows the recovery rate to be 95.9 per cent. The CM said that out of the 343 fresh cases of Sindh, 62 (or 18.1 per cent) have been reported in Karachi Division: 22 of the city’s new patients are from District East, 14 from District South, 12 from District Central, eight from District Korangi and six from District West.

As for the other districts of the province, Hyderabad has reported 57 new cases, Naushehroferoze 26, Mirpurkhas and Thatta 20 each, Shaheed Benazirabad 18, Tando Muhammad Khan 17, Sujawal 16, Badin 10, Larkana nine, Sukkur eight, Dadu and Umerkot seven each, Ghotki six, and Jacobabad and Shikarpur four each, he added.

The chief executive reiterated his appeal to the people of Sindh that they should comply with the standard operating procedures devised by his provincial government.