Pakistan’s largest city Karachi is launching a door-to-door campaign to vaccinate women, who are lagging behind men in rates of coronavirus inoculation as the country enters a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official said on Friday.
This comes as the fifth wave of the coronavirus intensifies in Pakistan, while the positivity rate in Karachi has doubled in one week to cross 10 percent.
The country on Friday reported nearly 1,300 cases in a single day, its highest tally in two months, with a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent.
According to data from the Sindh health department, the positivity rate in Karachi was 4.74pc on December 31, 2021, when 160 people in the metropolis tested positive for the virus. In contrast, 650 people tested positive in the provincial capital on January 6, while the positivity rate was recorded at 10.25pc.
The positivity rate in Hyderabad stood at 1.24pc in the last 24 hours while it was 0.94pc for the rest of the province.
The highest number of cases was reported in Sindh at 759 followed by Punjab at 376.
“We have found that a sizeable number of housewives are unvaccinated, and they socialise and attend weddings without face masks,” Qasim Siraj Soomro, parliamentary health secretary of the Sindh provincial government, told a foreign news agency.
In contrast, the rate of vaccination among male family members who go out to work is higher than the rate among women, he added.
The provincial government’s campaign will use female health workers, who have long played an instrumental role in country-wide polio vaccination campaigns in the South Asian nation.
“We plan to target clusters in urban areas and at a later stage in rural areas,” said the parliamentary secretary.
Abdul Rasheed Channa, a spokesperson for the Sindh chief minister, said the total number of cases of the new variant had risen to 307 in the province.
Channa said under a separate initiative by the provincial government to gauge the prevalence of the Omicron variant, 37 samples were tested between January 3 and 5, out of which 30 came back positive for Omicron.
“81 percent of samples tested in the last two days were positive for Omicron,” he said.
Meanwhile, Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab urged citizens to wear masks and get vaccinated.
“Otherwise, very soon, the situation may go out of hand,” he said on Twitter.
‘Travel curbs not required’
Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said that the coronavirus pandemic could not be brought under control by imposing restrictions on travelling.
However, he added that passengers travelling to Pakistan must undergo a COVID-19 test 24 hours before their planned journey.
The PM’s spokesperson said this during an appearance on a private news channel.
Ruling out the possibility of lockdown in the country despite a sharp increase in Covid cases, Dr Sultan said the coronavirus condition in Pakistan was “under control” and he was keeping a close eye on the COVID positivity rate. “If the pandemic spreads, the decision will be taken accordingly,” he said, adding the preventive measures would be taken in the areas that would be affected by the virus.
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a department leading the nation’s campaign against the pandemic, said that the country had confirmed overall 1,301,141 cases so far, including 1,258,086 recoveries.
The active cases in the country have surged to 14,094, including 609 in critical condition.
According to the NCOC data, the pandemic killed six people on Thursday, increasing the death toll to 28,961.
