KARACHI: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said on Tuesday that no case of UK Covid-19 variant — causing public health crises in parts of the country, particularly Punjab — was reported in Sindh so far this year.

She said that the Sindh government had begun monitoring of commuters to minimise chances of virus transmission and postponed a Pakistan Peoples Party rally as well as the Sehwan mela.

Speaking at a press conference held on the premises of Sindh Assembly building, the minister also said that to boost the vaccination process, the government planned to purchase a single-dose vaccine directly from China for which it had allocated Rs500 million.

While journalists during the presser raised several issues related to public health, the main focus was the update on Covid-19, its transmission and provincial government’s initiatives for prevention.

Health Minister Pechuho says no case of UK variant reported this year in the province

“Within a week, there have been over 27,000 positive cases in Lahore, over 9,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, almost 8,000 in Islamabad and 3,307 in Sindh. During the same period, 142 people died of Covid-19 in KP, 434 in Punjab and 30 in Sindh,” she said, sharing her concern over the countrywide situation.

It was due to these circumstances that the government decided to postpone the rally being organised to mark the 42nd death anniversary of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the mela, she added.

“We realised that holding large public gatherings at a time when the country is seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases would only make matters worse,” she said.

Screening of passengers

Talking about the government’s preventive steps, the health minister said screening of passengers had been initiated at bus and railway stations.

“If a passenger is found to have a fever, the local district administration will be notified and the passenger concerned will be tested for Covid-19. In case of a positive test, the person and their family will be instructed to isolate at home for two weeks.”

Explaining the Covid-19 spike in other provinces, the minister said it was due to higher frequency of travelling as well as the prevalence of the UK variant in a large number of cases, especially in Punjab.

It may be recalled that a few cases of UK Covid-19 variant were reported in Karachi last year.

Single-dose vaccine

The vaccination process, she pointed out, had been slow and the provincial government planned to buy the single-dose vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc to boost this process.

“The federal government has already allowed provinces to purchase jabs independently. This vaccine is available in the market and the provincial government plans to buy it directly from China for which Rs500 million has been allocated.”

Sharing data on vaccination centres and the vaccine doses Sindh received so far, the minister said 175 adult vaccination centres were functional across Sindh. Of them, 29 were in Karachi, eight in Hyderabad while the rest in other parts of the province.

“People above 50 years of age are now eligible for registration and getting the vaccine jab. A total of 362,000 doses were initially sent by the federal government. So far, 163,808 doses have been utilised including senior citizens from the general population.

“The federal government has received 60,000 doses of the single-dose Chinese vaccine. Of this, 8,000 to 10,000 will be given to Sindh, which will also be getting 200,000 of the double-dose vaccine,” she added.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2021