KARACHI: With coronavirus cases on the decline nationally, the government in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh on Monday decided to reopen shrines, amusement parks, gyms and swimming pools in compliance with an earlier decision by the federal government to ease lockdown rules.

Sindh province has taken this decision as the number of COVID-19 cases has started to decline in the province, officials said, thought the death rate has not budged significant since last month.

On May 17, the positivity rate in the port city of Karachi, the largest city in Sindh, was 26.3 percent, while only 7.6 percent of those who were tested on Sunday were positive, marking a significant decline in new infections

The decision to relax restrictions was taken in a meeting of a provincial task force that decided to “adopt the National Command and Operation Center’s decisions regarding further relaxation in COVID-related restrictions imposed on different activities.”

The NCOC is Pakistan’s main body overseeing the national pandemic response. 

“The task force thorough discussions and deliberations endorsed opening of shrines, amusement parks, gyms and swimming pools as was decided in the last task force meeting held on June 19, 2021,” a statement issued from the chief minister house said. 

Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi said 14,052 tests were conducted in the province on June 27 against which 521, or 3.71 percent, cases were detected. Around 368 coronavirus patients died in June — 208 or 56 percent on ventilators in hospitals, 83 or 23 off ventilators and 77 or 21 percent at home. 

“At this the chief minister said that in May we had 392 deaths which meant that the death ratio had not come down,” the statement said.