NCOC issues new guidelines for mosques, places of worship

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has issued fresh Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for mosques and other worship places in order to curtail the spread of the fifth Covid-19 wave in Pakistan.

The NCOC in its daily meeting reviewed the coronavirus situation across the country and decided to issue guidelines for prayers in mosques. In its meeting, the NCOC decided the following:

• Only fully vaccinated individuals to be allowed for prayer in mosques/worship places
• Masks made mandatory
• Carpets to be removed
• 6 feet distance to be maintained
• Ablution to be performed preferably at home
• Minimal attendance for prayers
• Opening of doors / windows for ventilation; preferably organising prayers in open
• Shortened Friday sermon
• Frequent hand sanitisation
• Minimal attendance for prayers; elderly and co-morbid to preferably offer prayers at home

During the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 6,540 new coronavirus cases at a positivity ratio of 11.10%.

The country conducted 58,902 tests. So far, Pakistan has confirmed 1,360,019 Covid-19 cases. In the past 24 hours, the country also reported 12 coronavirus deaths, taking the death toll to 29,077.

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Another 1,119 people have recovered from coronavirus in Pakistan, taking the country’s total to 1,267,598.

The number of active cases stands at 63,344, while the number of Covid-19 patients in critical care stands at 1,055.

Meanwhile, the NCOC said on Friday that educational institutions with high positivity are to be closed for a week, adding that aggressive testing especially in high disease prevalence cities will be carried out.

In a statement, the NCOC said testing in education institutes was carried out in major Omicron-hit cities to ascertain disease-spread among students and ensure accurate disease mapping.

NCOC says to shut down schools in high-risk areas for one week

"Data suggests a strong correlation between vaccination levels and infection rate in various cities," it said. "It has therefore been decided that aggressive testing (will be carried out) in educational institutes for next two weeks, especially in high-disease prevalence cities.

"Education institutions/premises/sections/specific classes with high positivity to be closed for one week."

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A meeting of provincial education ministers will be held today (Saturday), say officials, to finalise the decision.