As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Pakistan, Sindh province banned all social gatherings, both indoor and outdoor, and ordered public and private offices in the province to operate with 50 percent staff strength, reported the Express Tribune. 

A notification issued by the provincial government said all kinds of gatherings – both indoor as well as outdoor – including social, cultural, political, sports, musical, religious, or miscellaneous events have been completely banned.

Indoor dining in restaurants is banned and outdoor dining is permitted till 10 pm.  The decision was taken to check the fast-spreading UK variant of coronavirus.

During the meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali also suggested banning inter-city transport for at least two weeks. 

“Though it (the spread) is not as intense in Sindh as it is in other parts of the country, particularly in AJK, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and the federal capital, yet we have to take some drastic measures to contain it,” he was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune. 

He also asked the federal government to ramp up vaccine procurement. “We have to make necessary arrangements for procurement of Covid vaccine in bulk so that each and every individual of the country can be secured,” he said.

Faisal Sultan, the special assistant to the prime minister on health, said on Wednesday that the government would ramp up vaccination efforts in the coming weeks. 

Vaccines are currently in short supply, he said. "In April, May, and June, millions of more vaccines are to be procured as we have over 100 million people over the age of 18," he added.

Currently, the country has been using two types of vaccines: Sinopharm and Cansino (single dose), both of which are Chinese-made. On Wednesday, 60,000 doses of Cansino have been delivered to Pakistan. Furthermore, the country this week has procured around 1 million vaccines in total.