ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Friday, announced imposing a new set of Covid-19 restrictions in districts with high coronavirus ratio in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and the federal capital which include shutting down educational institutes for a week from September 4 to 12.
According to a notification issue by the NCOC, the restrictions would be applicable from September 4 to 12 in 15 districts of Punjab; Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Khanewal, Multan, Bahawalpur, and Rahim Yar Khan; eight districts of KP; Peshawar, Swabi, Malakand, Swat, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, and Dera Ismail Khan; and Islamabad.
Under the new restrictions, all types of outdoor and indoor gatherings and intercity public transport will be banned, while indoor gyms and educational institutes will remain closed.
The restrictions were announced after taking a detailed stock of the current disease situation in various districts, daily hospital admissions, pressure on critical care and availability of oxygen, the NCOC said, adding that they will be reviewed on September 9.
The NCOC meeting held here with Asad Umar, the chairman of the forum, in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, decided to ban all indoor and outdoor gatherings and events in the federal capital.
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 begin from September 4 and will remain in place till September 12, 2021.
The additional measures come as Pakistan’s death toll crossed 26,000, on Friday as the country reported 57 more coronavirus deaths taking the overall death toll to 26,035 and more than 5,600 coronavirus patients remained admitted to critical care units of various hospitals dedicated for the Covid-19 patients.
Pakistan has registered 3,787 more coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, after 59,745 tests were conducted, taking the cumulative cases tally to 1,171,578, the NCOC’s data revealed.
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 percent.
Pakistan is reporting 3,911 new infections on average each day, 67 percent of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17.
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.
According to the NCOC, Punjab in the past 24 hours reported a total 1,368 cases and 20 Covid-19 deaths, Sindh reported 1,228 fresh cases and eight deaths, KPK reported 667 new cases and 26 deaths, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) reported 332 fresh cases and two deaths, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) reported 104 new cases and no deaths, Balochistan reported 47 new cases, and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) reported 41 cases and one death.
Out of 1,171,578 cases recorded in the country since outbreak of coronavirus, Sindh with 435,169 cases is on top followed by Punjab with 397,694 cases, KPK 163,677 cases, ICT 100,242 cases, AJK 32,484 cases, Balochistan 32,329 cases, and GB 9,993 cases.
Out of 26,035 nationwide coronavirus deaths, Punjab with 11,979 deaths is on top followed by Sindh with 6,932 deaths, KPK 5,041 deaths, ICT 868 deaths, AJK 702 deaths, Balochistan 339 deaths, and GB 174 deaths.
The country has administered at least 58,156,714 doses of the Covid vaccines so far.
Assuming every person needs two doses, that is enough to have vaccinated about 13.4 percent of the country’s population.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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