pakistan 
A lockdown will be imposed in the province of Sindh from July 31 (tomorrow) till August 8 as provincial authorities are in a bid to mitigate the spread of the deadly Delta variant of the Coronavirus.
The decision came forth during a meeting of the Sindh government’s Covid-19 task force in Karachi.
The meeting, presided by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, was convened to take all the stakeholders into confidence regarding the current Covid-19 scenario. Members of the opposition and the business community also took part in the meeting.
“I want us all to be on the same page,” Murad said.
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The port city has been seeing a huge spike of patients as the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus fuels the spread of the pandemic.
All markets are to remain closed during the lockdown period, however, pharmacies are allowed to remain open and function.
A ban on inter-city travel has also been announced and all markets will remain closed.
Murad Ali Shah, while addressing the meeting, said that the vaccination cards of citizens moving around would be checked during the lockdown and government offices would be closed from next week.
He said that unvaccinated government employees won’t be issued their salaries after August 31.
This decision comes a day after the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar declined the idea of closing down the entire city to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Umar heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). He, on Thursday, said that Pakistan should go forth with the strategy of smart lockdowns.
Sindh Health Secretary Dr Kazim Jatoi said the Covid-19 positivity rate had risen to 13.7 per cent in the province.
He explained that 45 patients died in the last 24 hours and at present, there were a total of 39,958 Covid-19 active cases in the province.
