COVID vaccination drive planned for minority worship places, beggars in Karachi

KARACHI: Sindh government has decided to launch a COVID vaccination drive for beggars and worship places for minorities in Karachi in order to expedite the immunization process, ARY NEWS reported on Monday.

According to a notification issued by the provincial health department, the covid vaccination services would be provided outside the worship places of Hindus, Christians, Bahahis, Parsis, and others after consultation with their religious leaders.

The district health officers (DHOs), according to a notification, will chalk out a strategy to manage COVID vaccination services outside churches, temples, and community halls.

Furthermore, the health department also decided to vaccinate beggars in the city while estimating their numbers at 70,000 as per the 2017 census.

“As many as 70,000 beggars come to Karachi from different parts of the country and used to live at spaces under the flyovers and bridges,” the department said while directing the DHOs to prepare a strategy in this regard to vaccinate beggars in their areas.

The director for the health department said that mobile vaccination units would be utilized for the purpose.

Sindh province has previously taken multiple measures to improve the vaccination process in Karachi and other parts of the province as the former witnessed a positivity rate of over 25 percent previously.

The province besides opening over 100 vaccination facilities, also operated drive-thru and mobile unit facilities that had helped in improving daily vaccination figure in Karachi to go beyond 150,000.

The announcement to block SIMs and ban entry at various places besides warning to stop salaries of government and public employees have also helped the provincial authorities in improving the COVID immunization that helped in bringing down the infection positivity ratio.