SIM cards blocking: Long queues for Covid vaccination at Karachi Expo Centre

KARACHI: Long queues were seen outside Karachi Expo Centre on Thursday, the biggest vaccination centre in the city after the government announced new restrictions for unvaccinated citizens, ARY News reported.

Hundreds of people including students, labourers, senior citizens approached the Karachi Expo Centre to get themselves inoculated against Covid-19 after the provincial government threatened to block SIM cards of unvaccinated people.

The National Command and Operation Centre chief today announced that 31st August will be the last date for workers of the hotels and restaurants, employees of the train service, public transport, government offices and those working at shops and markets to get vaccinated. “After this deadline, the un-vaccinated people will not be allowed to work,” he announced.

The Sindh government last week decided to approach Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block SIMs of unvaccinated people amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the province.

The decision was shared by the Spokesman for the Sindh government and Adviser to CM Sindh on Environment Murtaza Wahab from his Twitter handle.

He had said that the provincial government would approach National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) and PTA to block SIMs of unvaccinated people.

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Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Sha also said that the PTA would be approached through the federal government to send messages to users to get vaccinated and those not getting a jab in a week will face blocking of their SIMs.

“We will decide on stopping salaries of the government employees who are still unvaccinated from next month,” he said and directed the secretary of finance to reach out to the accountant general (AG) Sindh in this regard.