KARACHI: Sindh province will end its coronavirus lockdown on Monday, officials confirmed, despite a mounting pressure on hospitals as the number of COVID-19 patients in critical care has increased.
Sindh entered the week-long lockdown on July 31 as hospitals in its cities were close to saturation levels and amid a sharp rise in infections fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, especially Karachi.
While the number of cases is slightly lower than when the lockdown took force, over 2,170 new coronavirus cases have been reported across the province in the past 24 hours — nearly half of Pakistan's daily tally.
"From Monday, lockdown will be lifted, and measures announced by National Command and Control Center (NCOC) will be enforced," Qasim Soomro, Sindh parliamentary secretary for health, told Arab News.
"We will have same restrictions in place as recommended by NCOC for the rest of Pakistan."
The decision follows a session between the NCOC and Sindh government, which revealed that pressure on health facilities was not easing despite the lockdown.
"High flow oxygen occupancy nearly reached 80 percent of capacity," the Sindh chief minister's spokesman Rasheed Channa said in a statement. "The pressure on the health care system was expected to continue for weeks."
The number of coronavirus patients in critical care in Karachi has also increased in the past two days from 1,195 to 1,210.
Following the lifting of the lockdown, the NCOC said stringent health guidelines will be enforced in 13 cities of Sindh that have the highest disease prevalence, including Karachi and Hyderabad.
As the lockdown's end will coincide with the beginning of the Islamic month of Muharram, the NCOC is going to issue special guidelines for congregational events associated with the period, during which Shia Muslims hold processions to mark the death anniversary of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Karbala, Iraq.
Soomro said religious scholars will be urged to televise sermons instead of organizing gatherings, while the government is planning to set up vaccination sites where the Muharram processions take place.
