No salaries for public servants as Sindh makes COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for every citizens

KARACHI — Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has directed the provincial finance ministry to stop the salary of government employees who are refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The chief minister has also has declared coronavirus vaccination mandatory for every citizen of the province in a move to avoid the resurgence of virus that has claimed thousands of lives in Pakistan since the pandemic started in last year.

Presiding over a meeting of the Provincial Task Force on coronavirus in Karachi on Thursday, he also directed the health department to establish vaccination coverage facilities in every nook and corner of the province.

Murad Ali Shah directed the Chief Secretary to give a month to all the government employees for getting them vaccinated and stop salaries of those officials who fail from July 2021.

He said that drastic measures are being taken to secure the citizens, adding that he wanted at least 300 vaccination centers in the rural areas with a target of vaccinating 30,000 people per day.

He also directed the health departments to set up five mobile vaccination teams on every taluka level with a target of vaccinating at least 60,000 people per day.

The chief minister also directed health department to assign a target of 10,000 vaccination to 90 private hospitals in the province, besides asking it to add more private hospitals in the vaccination campaign.  

Secretary Health Dr Kazim Jatoi informed the meeting that so far 1,550, 553 doses have been administered, of them 1,121,402 in the first dose and 429,223 in the second dose.

The meeting was told that on the evening of May 29, four cases of Indian Variant were identified in Sindh. The infected passengers had travel histories of Iraq and Oman.