Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all public, private sector employees: NCOC

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced on Wednesday that all public and private sector employees will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19, adding that all government workers must also be fully inoculated by June 30.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar made the announcement while chairing the meeting of the NCOC.

“The more [people] we vaccinate, the better we will be protected [against Covid-19],” said Umar.

The meeting also reviewed the ongoing vaccination campaign across the country and the implementation of Covid-19 SOPs.

The forum decided to ease some of the Covid-19 restrictions.

The following decisions were made in this regard:

• Restriction on the closure of two days a week to be relaxed to one day. Choice of the day will be at the discretion of federating units • Existing 50 percent work from home policy to be relaxed to 100pc office attendance • Selected non-contact sports to be permitted • Partial opening of indoor gyms for vaccinated members only • Ban on the closure of shrines to remain in place • Cinemas to remain shut

In addition, the body also issued the following directives:

• Introduction of certain incentives for various sectors to encourage vaccinations • All vaccination centers to remain open from 8 am to 10 pm daily from June 11 (except Sundays) • From June 11 onwards, citizens above 18 years of age will be able to avail the walk-in facility at vaccination centers.

Pakistan has continued to witness a decline in the cases since it imposed restrictions, and has been making efforts to vaccinate a large number of people.

Pakistan reported on Wednesday the lowest number of coronavirus cases since February 22 after 1,118 people tested positive for Covid-19 during the last 24 hours.

The country's Covid-19 positivity ratio continued to stay below 3% for the second straight day, standing at 2.54%.

Pakistan has administered 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines so far. On Wednesday, the achievement was hailed as an important step towards the country's goal of vaccinating 70 million people by the end of the year.

Last week, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah made Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for all citizens of the province and ordered that the salaries of non-vaccinated government officials should be stopped from July.