Sindh Minister for Health, Dr. Azra Pechuho said on Thursday that the government could impose a lockdown in the province if there was a spike in the rate of hospitalization.
“If hospitals start filling up with patients and there is no space left, then we will go towards a lockdown,” Dr. Pechuho said while talking to journalists after chairing a meeting at Shahbaz Building on Thursday.
However, she said the authorities will consider imposing a mini lockdown in those areas where the virus is rapidly spreading.
The minister said that over 500 cases of coronavirus, including 175 cases of Omicron have been detected in Karachi, showing a spike in infection rate.
“The Omicron cases will increase to over 1,000 in the next two months,” Dr. Pechuho added.
Later in the day, the official Twitter handle of the Chief Minister’s House said that so far 268 cases of Omicron have been confirmed while 95 cases have been reported from 28 December to 02 January.
The tweet added that some cases have been found in people with a travel history while most of them were locally transmitted.
Earlier, the Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Minister, Asad Umar, had also said that the option of lockdown was not being considered at the moment. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) head added that they were looking at the coronavirus numbers very closely.