(ETH) – The head of a Pakistani province ordered Thursday that government employees who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 would not be paid from next month.
Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah announced the move after meeting with health officials to discuss the first cases of the delta variant detected in the province, which includes the megacity of Karachi. “Any government employee who is not vaccinated should have their salary stopped from July,” he tweeted, adding that orders had been given to the finance ministry.
The third wave of infections has begun to stabilize in the country after weeks of restrictions on public gatherings, but Sindh province has reported the highest number of cases since the pandemic began. Pakistan’s initially sluggish vaccination rollout has been ramped up in recent weeks with more than 200,000 doses administered most days.
But the impoverished country has fully vaccinated only around 2.2 million people — a fraction of its 220 million population. Misinformation and conspiracy theories about the side effects of the jab have sparked hesitancy in Pakistan, while the requirement to have a mobile phone to register for a shot has proved a barrier for some poor and illiterate citizens. READ MORE
