President Alvi chairs meeting at Governor House on third Covid wave

KARACHI:A high-level meeting on the third wave of coronavirus and implementation of precautionary measures was held at the Governor House under the chairmanship of President Dr Arif Alvi.

According to a statement issued from the Governor House, the meeting was also attended by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Ministers Asad Umar, Ali Haider Zaidi, Senator Saifullah Abro, Member National Assembly J Prakash, Members of Provincial Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Khurram Sher Zaman, Haleem Adil Sheikh and Bilal Ghaffar.

During the meeting, Federal Minister Umar gave a detailed briefing to the President on the spread of the third wave of coronavirus, precautionary measures taken by the government and import of vaccines. Alvi appealed to the people to be very careful as the new wave of coronavirus is more deadly than ever and now it is spreading very fast.

He said: “The government needs your cooperation once again. Make sure you take precautions because taking just a few precautions can save the lives of your loved ones and countrymen.”

Briefing the meeting, Umar said that the spread of coronavirus in the country was becoming alarming, and the current epidemic is more deadly than ever as it is spreading very fast. He added that there had been a significant increase in cases of coronavirus due to which the supply of oxygen to hospitals was now under pressure due to increased demand for oxygen. He says the ratio of serious patients is presently more than 30% as compared to June last year, so the public is being repeatedly appealed to take precautions or they may be forced to lockdown. He also directed to take action against those who do not implement the SOPs. “A few more sanctions have been imposed so far. Hopefully, the results will be positive.”

The Sindh governor said that consultation process had been ensured with the provincial governments regarding implementation of SOPs and sanctions, adding that the federal government was taking decisions by taking the provincial governments into confidence.