Daily Times

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) was apprised on Monday that all travelers landing in airports across country are being tested upon arrival and those who test positive are being quarantined in a bid to contain imported coronavirus cases.

According to a statement issued by the NCOC, the forum reviewed the overall Covid-19 situation in the country. The statement said the government would keep a record of vaccinated persons and even those who travelled from abroad would have to provide a legal document confirming that they had been vaccinated.

The meeting was apprised that the provinces have almost completed the training of the health staff regarding Covid-19 vaccination for swift inoculation of the vaccine. The training had been given to the staff of teaching hospitals, tehsil and district headquarters hospitals.

The NCOC discussed update from the provinces on positivity and critical data, non-pharmaceutical interventions implementation, preparations for vaccine inoculation and national vaccine strategy. In their briefing to the NCOC, the provincial chief and health secretaries including that of GB and AJK informed that all necessary measures were being taken prior to the availability of coronavirus vaccination.

The forum also discussed in details the complete procedure of vaccination, its time of availability, distribution process and most demanding areas where it can be used at the earliest. It stressed for purchasing of the quality of vaccination to ensure successful treatment of Covid-19 patients. The chief secretaries informed the forum about the steps being taken to ensure standard operating procedures (SOPs) and NPIs implementation. They also briefed about the positivity ratio in their respective provinces and cities with higher positive cases.

The forum was told that a large number of fines had been imposed while restaurants, shops and business centers had also been closed for not complying with the SOPs.

On Monday, the NCOC said, Karachi had the highest positivity rate in the country at 11.39 per cent, followed by Peshawar with 9.72pc and Mirpur with 9.62pc. It said that 2,218 Covid patients are in critical condition across Pakistan while the number of such patients is rising fast.

Sindh confirmed 854 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the provincial tally to 242,053, according to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. Eight more people lost their lives due to the virus, with Sindh’s death toll climbing to 3,900. A total of 11,497 tests were carried out in the province in the last 24 hours, Shah said in a statement.

Punjab reported 607 new cases and seven deaths over the past 24 hours, according to official data. The province now has a total of 154,017 confirmed cases and 4,568 deaths. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan collectively reported 259 new cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the official Covid-19 portal. Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan collectively reported 133 new cases of the novel coronavirus and five deaths, according to official figures.

Covid-19 cases continued to surge in the federal capital as 102 new cases were reported in city. According to an official, as many as 84 cases were reported on Sunday while 81 cases were reported on Saturday. He said so far 40,815 cases were reported from the federal capital while 468 deaths were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). He added that 38,737 patients had been recovered completely.

Meanwhile, on the direction of Ministry of National Health Services, the district administration of Islamabad had continued smart lockdown in different streets of the capital to reduce transmission of the infection in the selected streets and other sectors. They also started taking actions for violating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) related to corona while visiting marriage halls, markets and petrol pumps by its inspection teams. The administration also sealed schools, shops, workshop and restaurants on violation of SOPs. The inspection teams also issued notices to marriage halls besides imposing fines on owners of different shops.