KARACHI: Murtaza Wahab, the spokesman for the provincial government on Tuesday forecasted the imposition of a strict lockdown if COVID cases continued to escalate in the province.
Speaking during a press conference headed by CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah, the spokesman said that COVID cases in the province stood at 511 at the end of July.
“After a period of 30 days, we have witnessed a fourfold increase and it reached 2,153 on 26 July,” he said and warned that the province would not be able to sustain the cases if they continued a similar trajectory.
Overall 5.4 million people have been vaccinated in the Sindh province including 3.2 million in Karachi, he said.
“This is however very low as compared to Britain, UAE, and UK where 60 percent population is being vaccinated,” he said and shared that the province has opened walk-in vaccination centres at various places to facilitate the general public.g
He condemned all controversies against the vaccination process and said that even he and other government officials have received the double dose of the COVID vaccine.
He said that the general public must cooperate with the government as it was asking for nothing but cooperation from the general public in dealing with the pandemic. “Kindly wear masks and avoid outing with elders and children to minimize the risk of getting infected,” he said.
He said that if the situation persists and people refuse to vaccinate themselves and adopt COVID SOPs, then they had to take tough decisions that would include another lockdown.
“No one should then criticize the government’s decision to impose a lockdown,” Murtaza Wahab said and warned against holding ceremonies at marriage halls secretly and said that orders for strict action against such elements are being conveyed to commissioner Karachi.