A private security guard walks through a market closed due to new restrictions announced by provincial government to help control the spread of the coronavirus, in Karachi, Pakistan.
The fourth wave of Covid-19 pandemic has shown no signs of slowing down in Pakistan, as the country's active caseload shot past the 60,000-mark on Friday morning.
The National Command and Operation Centre's (NCOC) data showed that Pakistan lost another 86 people to the virus in the last 24 hours, pushing the nation's Covid death toll to 23,295, News Pakistan reported. NCOC's stats placed the country's positivity rate at 7.79 per cent.
The NCOC critically reviewed the spread of the disease in Karachi and decided to take all possible measures to assist the provincial government in combating the rising trend of the disease.
It was earlier reported that a decision on whether a two-week lockdown will be imposed in Karachi will be taken on Friday during the meeting of th provincial task force on coronavirus.
The Sindh health department had recommended clamping a two-week complete lockdown to contain the spread of the pandemic in Karachi as the positivity rate has gone beyond an alarming 30 per cent in the megacity, the report said.
Given the unsettling circumstances of Covid resurge in Karachi, the task force had received a strong proposal to impose a complete lockdown in the metropolis.
Medical experts and the health department had suggested halting inter-city and intra-city commute for two weeks.
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Accordingly, the Sindh government on Friday announced that a lockdown will be imposed in the province from Saturday till August 8 to curb the Covid spread, which is spiralling out of control.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the provincial task force at the CM House with Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in the chair. Parliamentary leaders of political parties were also invited to the meeting.
The meeting decided that government offices will be closed from next week while those who have not been vaccinated will not get their salaries after August 31.
It was also decided that the police will be authorised to check the vaccination cards of anyone on the streets.
The provincial government has also decided that all markets in the province will be closed. However, the export industry and pharmacies will be allowed to remain open.
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