KARACHI:The provincial Task Force on coronavirus in its meeting held under the Chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House on Monday decided to open schools from class VI to VIII with 50 percent attendance from June 15, Tuesday, and on ward Sunday would be observed day in respect of COVID related Sops.
Provincial ministers, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Saeed Ghani, Syed Nasir Shah, Jam Ikram Dharejo, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Police Mushtaq Maher, ACS Home Usman Chachar, Adl IG Karachi Imran Minhas, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Industries Riazuddin, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi, Dr bari, Dr Faisal, Dr Sara Khan, Dr Qaiser Sajjad, representatives of Corps-5 and Rangers.
The meeting was told that the overall detection ratio in the province has come down to 4.5 percent. The weekly report showed that Karachi had 9.5 percent cases and Hyderabad 5.65 percent. Karachi East has 12 percent cases, South nine percent, West eight percent, and Central seven percent.
It was pointed out that in June alone 192 patients of VOVID have died. In May 2021 392 patients lost their lives. The chief minister said that the detection ratio has started coming down and hopefully it would further drop down if the SOPs were followed in true letter and spirit.
On the recommendation of the Task force members, the chief minister decided to open schools from Class-VI to VII from Tuesday. He also decided that primary classes would be opened from June 21 if the COVID situation was improved further.
The chief minister decided that the NCOC has decided that instead of two days COVID-related closure of business activities now only one day, Sunday, would be kept observed. The task force would meet again on Saturday to review the situation and make decisions accordingly.
Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi told the meeting that out of 3,035,998 doses received so far 2,466,458 have been utilized. At this the chief minister directed the health department to further expand vaccination drives.
Murad Ali Shah, taking notice of the news of selling vaccination certificates at Expo Center by a private person, ordered IG Police Mushtaq Maher to arrest the culprit and make him an example for others. ‘I cannot tolerate such corruption,” he said.