KARACHI:
Last week, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced that 31 August is the final deadline for all service sector workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19. This announcement has yet again jolted people into action as they rush to get themselves vaccinated. As a result, scores of people were seen queued outside vaccination centres, which were already swarming with people, to get their first dose before the deadline.
I was passing by one of Karachi’s major vaccination points, the Expo Centre, where I witnessed thousands of people crowding the area. It is extremely dangerous for so many unvaccinated individuals to be gathered like this as it could result in the rampant spread of the Delta variant. Although the government has taken stringent measures to contain the Delta variant and enforced lockdowns in different parts of the country, we remain totally oblivious of the fact that vaccination centres can become our death booths.
Mass gatherings and public places have been banned; however, we have ignored the threat that vaccination centres pose as hotspots of mass gatherings. The government needs to consider this and establish more vaccination centres to avoid large crowds before the situation spirals out of control.
Irraj Mahmood
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, August 6th, 2021.
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