No vaccine, no cellphone calls: Pakistan provinces push citizens to get vaccinated

Taking a cue from Pakistan's Punjab province, the Sindh government on Tuesday announced that it would block the mobile SIM cards of those who refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccines, according to a media report on Tuesday.

Sindh Minister for Information Syed Nasir Hussain Shah announced the decision after the inauguration of a vaccination centre here in provincial capital, according to a news report in Geo TV.

He said that mobile phone SIMs of those who do not get vaccinated will be blocked soon.

SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE ONLY ON DH

The move comes days after the Punjab provincial government took a similar step.

To inoculate more people, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan's top body on the pandemic, will continue its mass vaccination campaign under a three-pronged strategy- voluntary, obligatory and incentivised vaccination, the report said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Tuesday reported less than 1,000 cases in a day for the first time since February 15.

A total of 838 people tested positive for the disease during the period, taking the total number of cases in the country to 943,027. The positivity ratio in the country stands at 2.39 per cent.

The total number of fatalities in the country reached 21,782 after 59 more people succumbed to the disease during the period.

A total of 1,576 people recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours. The national tally of recoveries stands at 880,316.

Currently, Pakistan has 40,929 active coronavirus cases, the report said.