NCOC toughens corona restrictions: Motorways to be shut for unvaccinated people

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Tuesday announced more restrictions for unvaccinated people who would not be able to avail public transport and travel on highways and motorways after October 15.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad after chairing an NCOC meeting, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said a single dose vaccination is necessary for travelling on highways and motorways after September 15 while after October 15, no one would be allowed to use the motorway without vaccination. He said vaccination has been made mandatory for air travel after September 30 while those working in transportation of educational institutions must take their doses before the date.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Faisal Sultan said citizens of 17-18 years age group would be allowed to get the COVID-19 vaccine from September 1 while those falling in age brackets of 15 to 16 would be vaccinated soon. Asad Umar went on to say that a single dose vaccination is necessary for travelling on highways after September 15 while after October 15, no one would be allowed to use the motorway without vaccination. He said school teachers and staff would also not be allowed to work after October 15 if they are not vaccinated. The NCOC also decided that unvaccinated people would not be allowed to enter shopping malls from August 31, he said while a single dose vaccination will be mandatory for entry into the malls after the date. From September 30, only those people having taken their both jabs will be allowed to enter shopping malls. Only those people who have taken one jab will be allowed to enter hotels from August 31 while complete vaccination will be mandatory for entry from September 30.

Dr Faisal Sultan said immunocompromised citizens aged 12 and above would get special recommended COVID-19 vaccine at mega vaccination centres. Similarly, he said those Pakistanis who want to travel abroad and need specific vaccine as per respective country’s requirement would be able to get such vaccine, adding that the vaccine would be allowed not on the basis of medical grounds but for their travelling requirement. He said that for this purpose, they have to show their visa of the respective country while this vaccine would be allowed on nominal charges. He said this category would be allowed for vaccination from September 1. He said payment would be charged only in this category as the government wants to facilitate all those students or businessmen or tourists who want to visit abroad but are facing hurdles for not having the required vaccination.

Dr Faisal said the government has started consideration to initiate booster after six months of second shot to above 50-year frontline healthcare workers. He said after consultation, this booster is likely to start from October 1.

Meanwhile, 91 corona patients lost their battle for life in the 24 hours — the highest tally of deaths in a day — taking the total death toll to 25,094 since the eruption of the pandemic in the country.

The national tally of active cases was recorded as 91,046 on Tuesday with 4,075 more people testing positive and 2,857 people recovering during the 24 hours.

Out of 91 patients who died, 77 were under treatment in the hospitals while 14 were in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Most of the deaths occurred in the Punjab followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

There were 5,513 infected patients under treatment in critical condition with 123 infected people admitted during the 24 hours in various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities of the country.

The national positivity ratio during the 24 hours was recorded 6.79 percent.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Islamabad 44 percent, Bahawalpur 66 percent, Peshawar 40 percent and Multan 67 percent. Around 507 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country, while no affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Around 59,943 tests were conducted across the country on Tuesday, including 18,495 in Sindh, 21,217 in Punjab, 10,003 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 5,436 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 3,413 in Balochistan, 602 Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and 777 in AJK.

Around 1,015,519 people have recovered so far across the country making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio.

Since the pandemic broke out, a total of 1,131,659 cases have been detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment patients so far, including AJK 30,865, Balochistan 31,865, GB 9,687, ICT 96,771, KP 157,721, Punjab 382,332 and Sindh 422,418.

Around 6,627 people perished in Sindh, 11,605 in Punjab, 4,819 in KP, 852 in ICT, 336 in Balochistan, 170 in GB, and 685 in AJK.

A total of 17,336,393 tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities across the country.

Meanwhile, the NCOC Tuesday said the country had regained its momentum of inoculating over a million COVID-19 vaccines a day after a slight dip.

The Center tweeted that the total vaccines administered to the eligible masses were 1,051,651 during the 24 hours.

The cumulative number of doses administered included both partially and fully vaccinated people where the total vaccines administered so far were 47,802,106, it wrote in the tweet.