Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its report has expressed its concerns over the rise of COVID-19 related deaths and cases throughout the country during the outgoing year 2021. “On the last day of the year, the virus death toll had risen to 10,105 and confirmed cases to 479,715, with fears increasing over the emergence of a new, more contagious Omicron COVID-19 variant,” the report said. Hundreds of thousands of factory workers and private employees were laid off during the pandemic lockdown, with daily wage earners the hardest hit, the annual report of HRCP said. The Sindh Covid-19 Emergency Relief Ordinance 2020 was an important response to the Covid-19 crisis in terms of providing relief to workers, tenants and parents of school-going children, the report underscored. The report underlined that freedom of movement was necessarily curtailed to a significant degree in all provinces and federal territories to reduce the risk of contagion, although such restrictions were reportedly applied arbitrarily in some instances.