NCOCThe National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday declared Covid-19 vaccination certificate mandatory for domestic air travel and urged the masses to get vaccinated by July 31 in order to circumvent any inconvenience. The nerve centre of the country in its fight against Covid-19 took to Twitter to announce the restriction aimed at encouraging vaccination and allow vaccinated individuals only to avail domestic air travel facility. The NCOC tweet mentioned that from August 1, Covid-19 vaccination certificate is mandatory for inland air travel. It further wrote on Twitter handle, ” Get yourself vaccinated by July 31 and get a vaccination certificate to avoid any inconvenience in this regard.” Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Saturday said the rate of Covid deaths per million population in Pakistan remained the lowest in the region due to timely decisions of the government. In a tweet, the minster, who also heads the NCOC, said in Iran some 1037 people were died out of one million population while in Nepal the number was 326, India 301, Sri Lanka 186, Afghanistan 160, and Bangladesh 113. “Timely decisions, hard work, cooperation of people & blessings of Allah made this possible.” However, he warned that risk was not over yet therefore the people should follow standard operation procedures (SOPs) and also vaccinate themselves against the disease. The national tally on Saturday of total active Covid-19 cases were recorded 54,122 as 1,841 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,310 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours. Thirty-two corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 29 of them were under treatment in the hospitals and three of them perished 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 Sindh. Out of the total 32 deaths occurred, 16 of them were under treatment on ventilators. There were 2,551 COVID-19 infected patients under treatment in critical condition with 26 of them admitted during past 24 hours in various Covid dedicated healthcare facilities of the country. The National Covid positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 4.89 percent. The Covid positivity ratio is the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals. The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Islamabad 33%, Skardu 25%, Lahore 19% and Multan 15%. The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major cities of Gilgit 54%, Rawalpindi 24%, Karachi 49% and Muzaffarabad 28%. Around 267 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Balochistan, and Gilgit Baltistan (GB). Some 37,636 tests were conducted across the country on Friday, including 10,032 in Sindh, 17,498 in Punjab, 6,005 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 1,500 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,432 in Balochistan, 706 in GB, and 463 in AJK. Around 924,782 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients. Since the pandemic had broken out, a total of 1,001,875 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 22,685, Balochistan 29,451, GB 7,639, ICT 85,351, KP 141,495, Punjab 352,153 and Sindh 363,101. About 22,971 deaths were recorded in the country since the break out of the contagion. Around 5,793 people perished in Sindh, eight of them died in hospital on Friday. About 10,924 people died in Punjab with 15 deaths occured in past 24 hours. Some 12 individuals died in the hospitals and three out of the hospitals. As many as 4,411 people expired in KP, six of them died in hospitals, 790 individuals died in ICT and one died in past 24 hours in the hospitals, 322 people died in Balochistan, and one died on Friday in the hospitals, 122 infected people perished in GB and 609 people died in AJK and one succumbed to the deadly virus in past 24 hours in the hospitals. A total of 15,622,535 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with Covid-19 facilities across the country. Some 2,860 patients were admitted to hospitals.