Covid-19 vaccination certificate mandatory for domestic flights from Aug 1: NCOC

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has said that coronavirus vaccination certificates are mandatory for passengers of domestic flights from August 1.

In a tweet on Saturday, the NCOC announced that from August 1, all passengers will be required to submit their Covid-19 vaccination certificates in order to travel within the country. The forum urged the citizens to get themselves vaccinated before August 1 in order to enjoy hassle-free travel.

Earlier, the NCOC had announced that those who had not been vaccinated will not be permitted to travel by air from August 1. The centre also gave a deadline that employees in the private sector, small, medium and large industries, factory and market workers, media, lawyers should be vaccinated by July 31.

The NCOC also directed that those in the transport sector, gymnasiums, hotels, wedding halls, and mosques should be inoculated by July 31 while students over 18 years must get vaccinated by August 3.

NCOC recommends banning air travel for unvaccinated individuals from Aug 1

Although Pakistan has picked up its pace of vaccination, it still lags behind having administered over 10 doses per 100 people at a time when the global average has gone up to 48, according to the latest available data.

During the last 24 hours, 366,477 doses were administered across the country. So far, 24,914,918 doses have been administered since the country started its immunisation drive.

Pakistan has been inoculating its population with CanSino, Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Pakistan picks up vaccination pace as Covid-19 cases rise

Meanwhile, the White House announced on Friday that it will send a shipment of 3 million doses of Moderna vaccine to Pakistan through the COVAX facility.

During the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 1,841 new cases and 32 deaths. So far, the country has confirmed 1,001,875 cases and 22,971 deaths.

The national Covid-19 positivity ratio was recorded at 4.89%. Overall, there are 2,551 critical cases and 54,122 active cases in Pakistan.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that although Pakistan has the lowest deaths-per-million of the population compared to other countries, the risk of the novel coronavirus is not over.

In a tweet on Saturday, the minister said that coronavirus deaths per million in Pakistan is 102, which is the lowest when compared with Iran (1,037), Nepal (326), India (301), Sri Lanka (186), Afghanistan (160) and Bangladesh (113).

"Timely decisions, hard work, cooperation of people & blessings of Allah made this possible. Risk is not over. Follow sop's & vaccinate," the minister tweeted.