'Get vaccinated till August 31 otherwise face restrictions'

ISLAMABAD (92 News) - Get vaccinated otherwise face restrictions as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Thursday set an August 31 deadline for sectors dealing with the public to get their staff vaccinated.

Addressing a press briefing after a meeting at the NCOC along with PM's Special Assistant on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, the minister urged people to act responsibly and get vaccinated immediately.

He said that everyone should get done inoculation before August 31, including school drivers, students above 18, employees and workers of marriage halls and restaurants.

The minister said students over 18 years of age, teachers, transporters, government employees, hotel and wedding hall staffers and personnel of law enforcement agencies must get themselves vaccinated before the end of the next month.

“We have identified that banks, markets, public offices and schools are the sectors dealing with the public and in order to curb the virus spread, vaccination has been made mandatory for those working in these sectors,” he mentioned.

Umar said that those who are not vaccinated by August 1 will not be allowed to teach.

Cannot fight by shutting down the city for a long week: Asad

The Delta variant is growing at an alarming rate in Karachi, and the positivity rate has crossed 30% in the city. The Sindh government started considering a complete lockdown for 15 days.

The planning minister said that the Sindh government is working in a very dynamic manner, but we cannot fight by shutting down the city for a long week because the poor working class has to pay a heavy price.

“All instructions and SOPs should be followed in the city and for this, we will provide rangers and army to make this possible,”

He said that it’s been a year since we have lived with this situation; people are responsible for their own actions because the spread of coronavirus is directly linked with it.

“Patients have increased in the Karachi hospitals which is an alarming situation,” Dr Faisal Sultan said.

He said that the infection rate of the virus has increased across the country in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate in Islamabad is 7.5 percent whereas the number of patients on ventilators has exceeded 3000 while previously when the situation was under control they were below 2000.