Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre has on Thursday has decided to impose a new list of restrictions in the federal capital from September 4 till September 12 in order to contain the spread of coronavirus. The NCOC meeting headed by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar  gave a briefing to Prime Minister Imran Khan about the new restrictions.

According to the NCOC, all indoor and outdoor gatherings and events have been banned in the city.  However, only outdoor wedding events are allowed to be organised with a maximum of 300 guests. In addition to this, intercity public transport has been restricted in the cities having a high percentage of coronavirus cases. Indoor gyms will also remain closed. Meanwhile, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat announced that the increasing COVID-19 cases have increased the pressure on hospitals, therefore, new restrictions had to be imposed.

The DC took to Twitter to announce the enforcement of restrictions in Islamabad that come into force from tomorrow (September 4) and will remain in place till September 12, 2021.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s COVID-19 graph has been showing a declining trend as the country has mostly been recording less than 4,000 daily infections all of this week. The South Asian country registered 3,787 more coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours after 59,745 tests were taken, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,171,578, the NCOC’s data showed Friday morning.

The number of active coronavirus cases, too, have been declining for the last three days. The active cases fell to 90,076 Friday. The positivity rate was recorded at 6.33%.

With 57 more deaths, the death toll crossed the 26,000-mark and now stands at 26,035, according to the NCOC stats. The country’s daily recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases. Over 6,595 recoveries in the last 24 hours took the number of Pakistan’s cumulative recoveries to 1,055,467.

Pakistan is reporting 3,911 new infections on average each day, 67% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17. The country has administered at least 58,156,714 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 13.4% of the country’s population.

During the last week reported, Pakistan averaged about 1,019,949 doses administered each day. At that rate, it will take a further 43 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population.