NCOC announces to lift lockdown in Sindh province

KARACHI: National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has announced to lift lockdown imposed in the Sindh province from August 09 while continuing with other restrictions on movement, ARY NEWS reported.

According to the NCOC, Karachi and Hyderabad will face new restrictions on movement from August 09.

The Sindh province announced to impose lockdown in the province from July 31 until August 08 citing a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The body devising a national strategy to deal with the pandemic said that SOP implementation should be improved at the beginning of Muharram besides also emphasizing the need to adopt a smart lockdown strategy.

“Smart lockdown should be imposed in areas witnessing higher positivity ratio,” it said while also lauding the Sindh government’s measures that helped improve the vaccination process.

Earlier in the day, a session of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) was briefed that the fourth wave of Covid-19 has entered its sixth week in the country and losing some of its steam.

The session of the NCOC in Karachi was held at the CM House hosted by Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah. Federal Minister Asad Umar, Lt. Gen. Hamood-uz-Zaman, Special Assistant to PM Khalid Mansoor and other officials attended the meeting.

“The pandemic is raging in Azad Jammu and Kashmir with a ratio of Covid-19 positive cases soared to 26 percent,” the session was informed in the briefing. “Test Positivity Rate in Sindh has been 13 pct,” the meeting told.

“In Karachi positivity rate has been 21 percent, which is dropped by three pct from the previous positivity ratio,” the NCOC session briefed.

However, the hike in coronavirus cases in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is slower, according to the briefing.

The meeting was informed that 67 percent cases in Karachi are coming from Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Hyderabad.

“Daily 500 patients adding to the total number of infections in the country,” the meeting briefed.

“There are 1210 patients in precarious condition in Karachi, which is maximum in the country. The death rate has also enhanced in the city.”

“The Delta variant wave has been more intensive in Karachi,” the NCOC session briefed. “The Sindh government has taken stringent measures to counter the virus disease”.