Unpaid salaries: COVID vaccination at Karachi’s Expo Centre comes to standstill

KARACHI: Covid vaccination at Karachi’s Expo Centre, the biggest mass vaccination centre in the city, has come to a standstill after paramedic staff at the facility refused to work over unpaid salaries for months, ARY NEWS reported.

According to details, the paramedics and vaccinators at the Karachi Expo Centre have gone on strike over delayed salaries for months and demanded of the Sindh government to clear their dues before the resumption of their duty.

The citizens, who have been encouraged by the government to receive COVID jabs in wake of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, are facing difficulties as they were sent back by the health officials posted at the facility.

“The COVID cases are on the rise and suspension of vaccination from health officials have created problems for those visiting the Expo Centre to get themselves vaccinated,” a citizen who came to the facility said and demanded of the government to ease the suffering of the masses and release payments of the unpaid health workers.

It is pertinent to mention here that Karachi continues to witness an alarming increase in daily Covid-19 cases during the fifth wave of the pandemic fueled by the Omicron variant of the virus.

Sources at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) relayed that the highest positivity ratio of infections was recorded in the port city in the last 24 hours at 40.91 per cent, followed by 27.99 in Peshawar, 26.89pc in Muzaffarabad, and 26.54pc in Hyderabad.