KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, keeping in view the surge of Covid cases in the province, particularly in Karachi has decided to close all recreational Areas (RAs), including indoor dining and sports activities and schools from class one to eight and warned to take more strict actions if the standard operating procedures (SOPs) were not followed in true letter and spirit.
He took these decisions while presiding over a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Coronavirus here at CM House on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Provincial Ministers, Nasir Shah, Ikram Dharejo, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Parliamentary Secretary Health Qasim Siraj Soomro, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Police Mushtaq Maher, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, ACS Home Qazi Shahid Parvez, Commissioner Karachi Naveed Shaikh, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary School Education Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi, VC Dow University Prof. Saeed Qureshi, Dr Qaiser, Dr Sara of WHO, representatives of Corps -5 and Rangers and other concerned.
The chief minister was told that overall detection ratio of Coronavirus has reached 7.4 percent in the province and in Karachi it has been recorded at 17.11 percent on July 13.
At this, the CM said that on July 7 the detection rate of the city was 11.98 percent and within seven days it reached 17.11 percent on July 13. “The situation was going bad to worse and it would be more worse if necessary measures were not taken,” he said.
Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi told the chief minister that 365 cases of six types of coronavirus have been detected in the province, of them 95 of UK variant, 162 of South Africa, 29 Brazilian, 66 Indian, three P.1(501Y.V.3) and one Wild type upto July 12, 2021.
It was pointed out that in July 143 patients of COVID-19 have died, of them 98 or 69 percent on ventilators, 29 or 20 percent off vent and 16 or 11 percent at home.
The meeting was told that in the first wave starting from March 1, 2020 Sindh had a peak of 3038 cases, the peak of the second wave was 1983, the third wave had a peak of 2,076 cases and the fourth on-going wave has so far shown a peak of 1210 cases.
Keeping in view the situation the chief minister decided to close indoor dining, schools from class one to eights, all recreational places, including water parks, sea view, Hawks bay, Keenjhar, swimming pools, cinemas and indoor gyms from Monday. However, the schools where examinations were in progress would function as per their routine.
The chief minister said that on next Monday he would review the situation once again and may take more strict measures, if SOPs were not followed.
He was told that 5,870,997 doses of Covid vaccine have been received, of them 4,465,908 have been utilized.
Syed Murad Ali Shah urged the health department to accelerate its vaccination drive.
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