The Sindh government is seeking 10 million doses of Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics’ coronavirus vaccine.
In a tweet, Sindh Chief Minister’s Adviser on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab announced that the provincial government was interested in procuring 10 million doses of the vaccine. He attached a letter written by the Sindh Health Department to AJM Pharma which is the representative company for the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan.
Earlier, Provincial Minister for Information and Local Government (LG) Sindh Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that the Sindh government had immediately placed an order to purchase two million CanSino bio-vaccines dozes.
The Sindh government would procure more dozes by cutting development and other expenditures so that the entire population of the province could be protected from this deadly disease, he said while addressing a press conference on Friday.
Wahab and Parliamentary Secretary for Health MPA Qasim Siraj Soomro were also present on the occasion.
Shah said that the Sindh CM had not proposed a complete lockdown in the National Command Operaton Centre (NCOC) meeting held on March 31. He had only suggested a ban on the inter-provincial movement of transport, he added.
The minister said that the Covid positive cases were increasing at an alarming rate in the country, adding a provincial task force meeting was held under with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in the chair to discuss the situation.
The Sindh health minister and a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) also attended the meeting.
He said that the Sindh government was fully implementing the decision taken by the NCOC and strict measures had been taken in the areas where positivity rate is increasing.
The minister added that the Sindh education minister had been tasked to convene a meeting to decide about the schools.
“Sindh government wanted to procure vaccine directly from China and allocated funds in this regard but due to delay in fixation of the price of the vaccine by DRAP [Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan], it was unable to purchase vaccine,” he said.
“DRAP has now fixed the price of the vaccine, after which we have placed an order to procure 2 million doses,” he said.
Shah said that there were no reports from the federal government to buy the vaccine from its own funds and that it was dependent on vaccines donated by China.
He said that journalists are also front line workers and a vaccination facility would be provided to them at the press club at the divisional headquarters level.
Wahab said that the effects of the third wave of Covid-19 had reached alarming levels in Punjab, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), where the positive cases rose to 14 to 15 per cent.
Conditions are better in Sindh and Balochistan, he maintaiend. He said that the Sindh chief minister tried to persuade the prime minister to take tough decisions at the March 31 NCOC meeting.
He said that the Sindh government has not proposed a complete lockdown. He said that the Sindh CM had requested a ban on the inter-provincial movement of people. He also said that CM Murad has also suggested speeding up the vaccination process and removing the age bracket so that patients suffering from heart, cancer and kidney diseases could be vaccinated, he added.
He stressed that the Sindh government had been active in implementing coronavirus standard operating procedure (SOPs) in the province from day one.
“We have sought permission from the federal government for purchasing vaccines from private companies. We are doing everything we can do to protect our population,” he said.
Replying to a question, Shah said that the Sindh government was ready to hold local bodies elections and they had almost completed legislation to empower local bodies institutions.
In response to another question, he said that they welcome those who join the PPP. There are no criminal cases against those who joined the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). “There is no dirty laundry here. Clean and people of good reputation from MQM [Muttahida Qaumi Movement] are coming to our party. Our doors are open for them.”
In response to a question, he said that they were going to launch a campaign against stray dogs immediately. Currently, the Sindh government was working in collaboration with civil society and NGOs for the vaccination of stray dogs, he added. The opposition’s allegations are baseless and no funds have been set aside to neutralise dogs, he further said.
He said that 40 senior officers of the local government department had been suspended for negligence.
Separately, CM Murad said on Friday that the government was seeking the closure of only inter-provincial transport but not a complete lockdown.
The CM made the statement while chairing the session of the provincial task force on coronavirus on Friday.
During the session, a briefing was given to the participants regarding the government steps for curbing the spread of novel coronavirus.
It was stated that 68,877 tests are being conducted for one million population in Sindh and 3.3 million tests will be completed by Saturday. There are 664 ICU beds and ventilators in the provinces, whereas, the number of HDU beds is 1,872 and low-flow oxygen beds are 1,374.
Overall, 8,913 tests were conducted across the province on Wednesday and 237 cases were confirmed with the positivity rate recorded at 2.3 per cent. 265,916 cases were turned up in Sindh from which 256,384 patients have recovered.
The tally of coronavirus deaths stands at 4,504 with the rate of 1.7 per cent of overall positive cases. The positive rate of coronavirus cases was recorded between 2.6 per cent to 2.66 per cent from March 26 to April 1.
The direction ratio in Karachi stands at 4.63 per cent, 5 per cent in Hyderabad and 1.57 in other districts. A representative from WHO briefed that the positive rate is 11.21 per cent in Pakistan.
The provincial government then decided to compile one-month data of those who arrived in Sindh from the United Kingdom (UK).
CM Murad said, “We only want to close inter-provincial transport and unwilling to impose a complete lockdown. The third wave of coronavirus can be contained through the closure of inter-provincial transport. However, we want to continue the port activity and goods transport in Sindh.”
The chief minister said that Sindh could not solely decide for banning inter-provincial transport as a decision should be taken on the national level.
In this regard, the Transport and Mass Transit Department of Sindh notified on Friday that passenger vehicles operating from one city to another in the province will operate at only 50 per cent of its capacity.
The decision, announced by the Sindh government, came in force with immediate effect and is binding on all passenger vehicles being used for intercity transport in the province.
“The coronavirus SOPs issued by the Sindh government will be strictly adhered to,” said Transport Secretary Shariq Ahmad. The provincial government further said all coronavirus SOPs will be strictly enforced and those who violate them will be punished.
A day earlier, Sindh Chief Minister Murad had indicated the government’s intention to introduce new restrictions on transport.
Meanwhile, the KP government on Friday imposed a ban on inter-district transport for two days in the wake of the worsening coronavirus situation.
The local authorities said that only intra-city terminals will be opened; however, cargo vehicles and those transporting food items will be exempted from this restriction.
Meanwhile, talking to the media, Provincial Health Minister Taimur Saleem and Special Assistant to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister on Information Kamran Bangash said that coronavirus cases in 16 districts of KP have increased. “We can control the pandemic by adopting precautionary measures,” they added.
The decision came after Pakistan has reported 83 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 678,165. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 14,613.
