Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Sindh province, on Thursday declared Covid vaccination mandatory for citizens and directed the finance ministry to stop the salaries from July of government employees who refuse to get themselves vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Presiding over a meeting of the provincial task force on Covid-19, the chief minister said: "Government employees who do not get themselves vaccinated will have their salaries stopped from July."

He instructed the chief secretary to give the month of June for government employees to get themselves vaccinated and also declared Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for citizens, Dawn reported.

"We have to secure our citizens by taking some drastic measures," he said.

Giving additional directions for the vaccination campaign, CM Murad also instructed the 300 basic health units across the province to establish vaccination centers and set a cumulative daily target of 30,000 vaccine administrations.

Five mobile vaccination teams would, meanwhile, be established at every taluka level and given a target of 60,000 vaccines to be administered daily. “We have 605 talukas and they must vaccinate at least 60,000 people per day,” he ordered.

He also directed the health department to instruct the around 90 private hospitals in the province to target 10,000 vaccine doses daily and register more private hospitals for vaccinations.

The decisions came after Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday allowed the Sindh government to extend lockdown restrictions for another week to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the province. A source told Dawn that CM Murad had informed the prime minister that the provincial government wanted to extend the lockdown restrictions for another week.

(SAM)