The Sindh government on Wednesday decided to reinstate COVID-19 restrictions including banning indoor dining as the province faces a resurgence in coronavirus cases.

The upcoming restrictions were decided upon in the provincial coronavirus task force meeting headed by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday.

It has been decided that indoor dining will be banned starting July 15th. Indoor gyms, other sports activities, and cinemas will also be closed again. Further, from Friday, July 16th, schools will remain closed for grades 1 to 8. Students in 9th grade and above will only sit for exams. Amusement parks, waterparks, and picnic spots like Sea View, Keenjhar Lake, and Hawkesbay will all also be closed from the 16th.

Just on Monday, the Sindh Health Department proposed reinstating restrictions when Sindh’s COVID-19 positivity rate rose to 7% and Karachi’s rose to 14%. In today’s meeting, Shah announced that Sindh’s positivity rate had risen to 7.4% while Karachi’s was at 17.11%. He stated that the positivity rate increasing beyond 5% is a bad sign. The weekly report detailed that the positivity rate in Karachi East was 21%, 15% in Karachi South, 12% in Karachi Central and 8% in Korangi.

According to Sindh Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, 837 patients are currently admitted in hospitals. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that 18 cases of the Delta variant were reported in Sindh this month. This variant is believed to spread faster than the original and Alpha variants. Shah has instructed Jatoi to look into all the cases reported in the last 8 days saying, "I want the [case] history of every patient.”

On Monday July 12th, Pakistan hit its target of half a million vaccinations per day,

Just last month, Asad Umar had tweeted stating that artificial intelligence-based disease modelling had indicated that a 4th wave may hit in July,

Umar, who heads the National Command Operation Center, recently followed up his tweet by saying, “Now there are clear early signs of 4th wave starting”,

Earlier today, the NCOC Twitter account encouraged Pakistani’s to follow SOPs and get vaccinated,