ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is “fully” prepared to tackle and control any variant of Covid-19, as the federal and provincial relevant departments have taken all the preventive measures to deal with any situation.

This was informed to chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) during a special meeting held under the chairmanship of Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik to deliberate and review the Covid-19 situation in the country, especially following the reports of massive Covid-19 cases being reported in China and Korean Peninsula.

The officials of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) said that the health authorities in the past have also timely clamped down on the Covid-19 situation.

The NIH team was called on for updated monitoring of regional trends of new variant of coronavirus and trajectories’ development for Pakistan without creating undue alarm.

Pakistan faces threat of new variant of Covid

The chairman NDMA focused on evolving Covid variants and expressed confidence in Pakistan’s current strategies and national preparedness. However, the situation will be continuously monitored by the NCOC and preparedness, preventative protocols and vaccination administration system will be strengthened to tackle the spike in concern.

The NCOC showed detailed statistics on Covid management, vaccination administration data, and low risk of new variant in Pakistan. It was informed that the current Covid positivity rate stood at 0.53 percent and 95 percent eligible population has been inoculated with first and 90 percent with second dose of Covid vaccines.

The chairman NDMA directed the NCOC and the NIH to issue precautionary Covid variant risk advisory for public and relevant stakeholders based on scientific analysis of data at global and regional levels and carry out selective mock drills for Covid emergency.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022