KARACHI:Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, presiding over the meeting of Provincial Task Force on Coronavirus on Sunday at CM House, has allowed shopkeepers to continue their business activities from 5 am to 8 pm and also allowed the restaurants to offer outdoor dining service till 12 pm from today (Monday) with certain strict SOPs.
Sunday and Friday will remain closed for business activities as usual. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Drt Azra Fazal Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Nasir Shah, Jam Ikram, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Qasim Siraj Soomro, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Police Mushtaq Maher, ACS Home Usman Chachar, Adl IG Karachi Imran Yakoob, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary School Education Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary Industries Riazuddin Qureshi, Dr Bari, Dr Faisal, Dr Sara of WHO, Dr Qaiser Sajjad, and representatives of Corps-5 and Rangers.
At the outset of the meeting, the task force was told about the detection. Ratio of COVID cases in Karachi has come down from 12.45 on June 1, 2021 to 8.25 percent on June 5. But it was observed that the death rate was still 1.6 percent.
After discussion and deliberation the meeting decided to relax some COVID-19 related restrictions so that people start their business activities but simultaneously it must be linked to vaccination. The chief minister, on the recommendations of the task force members, decided to allow shops to do their business activities from 5 am morning to 8 pm. Earlier, the shops were allowed to operate till 6 pm.
He also allowed the restaurants to offer out-door dining service till 12 pm. “This has been allowed on the condition that the shopkeeper and restaurant owners would vaccinate their staff members within the next two weeks,” he said and added after two weeks the government would start random checking of their staff.
It may be noted that earlier outdoor dining at the restaurants was banned. Murad Ali Shah directed Commissioner Karachi to open the sea view and beach to the public but inform the visitors through sign boards/banners/media to follow SOPs. The Saloons would also operate under COVID-19 SOPs. The meeting also allowed marriage halls to start offering marriage functions in open spaces after two weeks.
Schools: The meeting decided to open educational institutions from Class-IX and above with 50 percent attendance from Monday (today). The chief minister directed the education minister to start mass vaccination of teaching staff in all the educational institutions. The chief minister hoped that the traders and the public would follow the SOPs.
Another vaccination center opened at Expo Hall-3
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday morning inaugurated COVID Vaccination Center at Expo Center Hall-3. He was accompanied by Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Minister Information Nasir Shah, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that his government had started vaccination drive on February 3, 2021 all over Sindh. “Till today over 1.3 million people have been vaccinated in the province,” he said and added that his government has set a target to vaccinate every resident of the province to make Sindh and Pakistan Corona free. Almost 90 percent of frontline health care workers and 75 percent policemen have been vaccinated.
Talking about Karachi, the CM said that 800,000 people have been vaccinated in the city till till date. “We have established 380 COVID vaccination centers all over Sindh, of them 115 are in Karachi,” he said and added Sindh has capacity to vaccinate 200,000 people per day including 100,000 in Karachi.
Mr Shah said that the vaccination center at Expo Hall-4 started working on dated 9th May, 2021 and till this date 200,000 citizens have been vaccinated there. He added that the Hall-4 has the capacity to vaccinate 30,000 people per day. “Today, we are starting Hall-3 to vaccinate 15,000 people per day,” he said.
The CM said that 250 mobile vaccination Units have been activated in the province, including 157 in Karachi to vaccinate the people in areas such as shopping malls, industrial areas, banking sector, bed ridden and handicapped people. “The objective is to establish five mobile units at every taluka level- for the purpose 630 mobile units would start operation very soon,” he said.
He urged people to avail home vaccination facility calling through four-digit help line No. 9123. “This facility is being provided to bed ridden, elderly and handicapped people,” he said. Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho also spoke on the occasion.
Media talk: Sindh Chief Minister talking to media reiterated his stance that the salaries of those government employees would be stopped who fail to vaccine them during the month of June 2021. “I am sure the private sector would also take similar steps,” he said and added “this is the only way to protect oneself and others.”
Mr Shah said that vaccination has been declared as mandatory for shopkeepers, transport workers, schoolteachers and for everyone. He said that the restrictions imposed to contain COVID-19 have produced positive results. “When restrictions were imposed there was a 17 percent detection rate and now it has come down to 11 percent,” he disclosed.
He said that the decision to impose restrictions was not made by him but “we take decisions on the advice of Task Force members,” he said. He added that the death rate in the province was lowest and the recovery rate highest in the province.
Replying to a question, Mr Shah said that ever since the current federal government has come into power it has been treating Sindh with abject bias. “If the number of schemes and their allocation [for provincially executed projects for Sindh] in the PSDP for the past four years and the proposals for next year are taken into account the PTI government’s injustice with the people of Sindh would be exposed,” he said.
Giving details of the PSDP schemes, he said that in 2017-18, there were 27 schemes in the PSDP with an allocation of Rs27.38 billion, in 2018-19 the number of schemes was reduced to 22 with an allocation of Rs14.266 billion. In 2019-20 again schemes were reduced to 13 and allocation came down to Rs8.5 billion. In 2020-21 only 10 schemes of Rs8.3 billion were given to Sindh and for 2021-22 only six schemes of Rs5 billion have been proposed. Shah said that the federal government was financing the construction of provincial roads in Punjab but has completely ignored Sindh.