Footage out of Pakistan purports to show thousands of residents lined up to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the government in two provinces implemented measures to block cell service for the unvaccinated.
The video shows a man driving down a street passing by a mile-long line of vehicles supposedly queued up to receive the vaccine.
“Since last night thousands of people lining up to get vaccinated in Karachi, Pakistan after Govt. decision to block phone SIM for unvaccinated,” the footage, being promoted on Twitter, is captioned.
Two months ago, the governments of the Punjab and Sindh provinces called for plans to block phone service for unvaccinated people, claiming too many were refusing to get vaccinated despite a rise in Covid delta variant cases.
“At first this was only a proposal, but people have been very hesitant in getting vaccinated so the decision was made,” a spokesman for the Punjab Primary Health department stated in June, not noting a specific date the decision would go into effect.
“The government is trying its best to facilitate people in getting the vaccine,” Sindh information minister Syed Nasi Hussain Shah said.
Ahead of the cell phone shut-off, Pakistanis complained life without a phone would be hard, but said they also feared the vaccine.
Forsided, 03.08.2021