Omicron variant: Sindh decides to make booster jab mandatory

The Sindh Government has decided to make booster jabs mandatory to curb the spread of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Health Secretary Zulfiqar Ali Shah has said that it has been decided to make the booster dose mandatory across the province because of the new variant.

He said that the Pfizer vaccine will be administered as a booster jab.

“The booster dose is being given only in Jinnah Hospital and DOW Ojha Hospital but it will be provided to the entire province and no charges will be taken for booster jab”, the Health Secretary said.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre, reports of rapidly mutated Covid variant Omicron have caused alarm in Pakistan and the monitoring body.

Earlier, the NCOC chief and Federal Planning and Development Minister, Asad Umer, encouraged all eligible citizens to get “vaccinated urgently”.

“Based on the emergence of the new Covid variant, notification has been issued [to] restrict travel from six South African countries and Hong Kong,” he tweeted.

‘Highly transmissible variant’

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s advisory panel has classified the new variant as “highly transmissible”.

Omicron has been put into the most troubling category of coronavirus variants after Delta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

Several countries rushed to ban flights to slow the spread of Omicron. Stock markets and oil prices plunged due to fears surrounding the variant, potentially dealing a heavy blow to the global economic recovery.



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