Observer Report Karachi
The Sindh taskforce on coronavirus will approach the National Command and Operation Centre to ban inter-provincial transport for two weeks.
A meeting, attended by senior provincial ministers at the Chief Minister House on Friday, was held under the chief minister’s chair.
The meeting was told that from March 26 to April 1, 2021 a positivity ratio of 4.63% has been recorded in Karachi, whereas it was found to be 5% in Hyderabad and 1.5 % in other areas of Sindh.
A World Health Organisation representative informed participants of the meeting that the UK strain of the coronavirus is growing at an alarming rate.
“The provincial task force decided to approach the federal government to impose a ban on inter-provincial transport so that travelling of people to and from Sindh could be stopped to contain the virus,” read a statement from the task force.
The chief minister clarified he was not in favour of a lockdown but instead, wanted to ban inter-provincial transport so that people could not move from one province to the other.
“This is the only way to contain the UK origin virus,” he said, adding that “the activity at the seaport and transport of goods would operate as usual”.
The meeting decided to collect the data of the people who have come from the UK to Karachi during the last few months for necessary tests and vaccinations. The home department was assigned the task to collect data from airports.
The meeting also recommended the provincial government shut down schools for the next 15 days.
For this, the chief minister directed Minister for Education Saeed Ghani to discuss the matter with all the stakeholders, including private schools management before taking a final decision.
“I am leaving it up to the education minister to decide in which areas/districts/cities schools should be closed,” he said.
