NCOC allows staggered relaxation in Covid SOPs

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday decided to allow opening of educational institutions in districts with less than five percent COVID-19 positivity ratio, outdoor dining by restaurants and tourism sector under stringent SOPs from May 24.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar co-chaired a crucial meeting of the NCOC here on Wednesday along with Lt General Hamooduz Zaman Khan. The meeting was also attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan and the chief secretaries of the federating units.

It was decided that outdoor dining activity at restaurants would be allowed till 23:59pm while takeaway services would continue round the clock. The NCOC also announced opening of all educational institutions across the country by June 7. “There will be staggered opening of the education sector from June 7,” the NCOC said. It was also decided that all Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) examinations would be held after June 20 whereas conduct of professional examinations would take place on case-to-case basis as recommended by the Ministry of Education.

Outdoor marriage ceremonies with a maximum of 150 guests would be allowed from June 1 while closure of shrines, cinemas, indoor dining, indoor gyms, amusement parks (walking, jogging will remain open with strict adherence of SOPs) and ban on contact sports, festivals, all types of indoor and outdoor cultural, musical, religious and other events would continue.

There would also be ban on inter-provincial public transport on Saturdays and Sundays from May 22 till further orders.

The NCOC had already allowed resumption of normal office working hours with 50 percent strength (50 percent work from home) from May 17. It had also permitted resumption of market activities with closure by 8:00pm (less essential services including export related sector).

The meeting, however, decided to continue implementation of broader lockdowns with stringent enforcement protocols based on risk assessment and current in-bound and land border policy till further orders.

It was also decided to re-open Gadani and Misiri Shah Industry from May 20. The next review meetings of the NCOC will be held on May 27 and June 7. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death toll reached 19,856 following 104 deaths across the country on Tuesday.

According to the NCOC, the national positivity ratio was recorded at 7.79% as 3,256 people out of 41,771 tested positive for the coronavirus while the total current active cases stand at 66,377.

Most of the deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Sindh. Some 41,771 tests were conducted across the country on Tuesday, including 14,041 in Sindh, 16,051 in Punjab, 6,198 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 2,814 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,521 in Balochistan, 342 in GB and 804 in AJK.

Around 799,951 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, a total of 882,928 cases have been detected so far that also include the perished, recovered and under treatment patients. They include 18,360 in AJK, 24,064 in Balochistan, 5,439 in GB, 79,552 in ICT, 127,609 in KP, 329,913 in Punjab and 301,247 in Sindh.

Of the total 19,856 deaths recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion, 4,835 have perished in Sindh (11 in last 24 hours), 9,563 in Punjab (63 in last 24 hours), 3,827 in KP (23 in last 24 hours), 735 in ICT (2 in last 24 hours), 270 in Balochistan (3 in last 24 hours), 107 in GB and 519 in AJK (2 in last 24 hours).

A total of 12,552,339 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Pakistan so far. The NCOC also said that a total of 212,625 vaccine doses were administered across Pakistan on May 18.

While sharing the vaccine statistics on twitter, the NCOC said a total of 4,745,378 vaccine doses have been administered till now. Meanwhile, Federal Minister Asad Umar on Wednesday inaugurated a mass COVID-19 vaccination centre in the federal capital to vaccinate 7,000 citizens daily from 75 counters.

Talking to the media, he said 100 trained vaccinators would remain on duty and standard services will be provided to the citizens in this centre. He asked the people to come to all vaccination centres for vaccination against COVID-19. He said it is the responsibility of every eligible citizen to visit the vaccination centres and protect them against coronavirus.

“We want to end all restrictions but it depends on meeting the target of the maximum number of vaccinations in the country,” Asad Umar said. He said despite several cases Pakistan is still in a better condition in the region and thanked the district administrations, the NCOC team and the police for playing an effective role in controlling the virus.

“We still need to continue all such measures as 4,500 patients are on oxygen across the country,” he said, adding that a massive awareness drive has been started with the support of traders’ and markets organisations and Ulema. He added that youth of Islamabad have also been engaged in this campaign to educate citizens about the importance of vaccination.

He said in order to make Islamabad free from coronavirus, MNAs of the federal capital were personally taking part in this massive drive and appealed to the other political leaders to ask their MNAs and MPAs to lead such drives in their respective areas.

He assured that the provision of vaccines to every city of the country is the responsibility of the federal government and added that there is no shortage of vaccines. He said so far good results were achieved from the vaccination.