Pak Railways threatens to stop employees' salaries for refusing COVID-19 vaccination

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 29 : Amid the continued resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the country, Pakistan Railways decided to stop salaries of employees who refused to inoculate themselves against the virus by August 31.
A notification was issued by the country's Railways Ministry in this regard, ARY News reported. Pakistan Railways has also issued directives to all divisional headquarters regarding vaccination of all employees by the August deadline.
"The ministry will stop salaries of employees who refused to inoculate themselves against COVID-19 by August 31," the notification read.
These directives come as Pakistan has reported the highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases in the last two months.
The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Thursday informed 4,497 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. Pakistan had last recorded more than 4,000 cases in a single day on May 21.
Earlier this week, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had directed all cabin crew to get themselves vaccinated against the virus by July 31. "All cabin crew are required to submit their vaccination certificate, fully or partially vaccinated, to scheduling and operation certification sections of flight services division," read the notification issued by PIA.
Pakistan's COVID-19 tally has risen to 1,020,324 cases. Meanwhile, the positivity rate of infection in the country has reached 7.53 per cent.