Two years after it was established in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) will cease to function on Thursday (today) as the baton will be passed to the National Institute of Health (NIH).

“Today is last day of NCOC operation. With covid indicators at all time lows & high level of vaccination, baton now being passed on to health ministry,” NCOC head and Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar tweeted today.

The minister continued that chairing NCOC during the last two years and working with the most dedicated team has “been the greatest privilege and honor of his life”.

“With Allah’s mercy and support of the entire nation, we have been able to overcome this unprecedented challenge.

Makes me immensely proud as a Pakistani that Pakistan received praise for its Covid response as one of the most successful in the world from global agencies and personalities.“

Prime Minister Imran Khan also took to his Twitter handle and congratulated the NCOC team and its leadership for a “professional, nationally-coordinated response to the pandemic”.

“As a result our Covid response was recognised by international agencies and people in the field as one of the most successful globally.”

Earlier, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had said that the government had reformed the NIH Islamabad so that it could effectively deal with any health emergency in the future and a Centre for Communicable Diseases (CDC) has been created within the NIH to play the role of NCOC, it was reported.

No action of NCOC can be challenged at any forum: SAPM

The NCOC was established in April 2020 to collect, analyse, and process coronavirus related data from all provinces, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Islamabad.