Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said that the National Coordination Committee (NCC) needs consensus from national political leadership across the political spectrum to limit all public gatherings in order to curb the increasing coronavirus cases.

In a tweet, the minister said that the rapid increase in positivity requires urgent steps to save lives and livelihoods. He said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has once again recommended banning all large public gatherings.

"Since mid October, when NCC first considered the NCOC recommendation to ban large public gatherings daily cases have nearly tripled," he tweeted.

Umar further said the national political leadership across the political spectrum needs to demonstrate leadership to send a message to the entire nation to follow the coronavirus Standard Operating Procedures.

Last week, following the NCC meeting, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the country cannot afford another lockdown. He said the NCC has decided to continue the smart lockdown policy and strictly implement the NCOC decisions.

We have decided that we will not close down businesses and industries. In case of the rise in coronavirus cases, we will close only those things which do not damage the industries, the PM said in a presser.