Asad Umar calls to accelerate vaccine drive

The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has announced that all educational institutions would start “normal classes” from October 11 (Monday).

The decision was taken in an NCOC meeting held on Thursday in which it was agreed to reopen educational institutions as coronavirus pandemic has subsided due to effective planning of the government and the launch of the school vaccination programme, Federal Minister and head of NCOC Asad Umar tweeted.

Educational institutions have been operating on 50 percent capacity across the country after they had reopened following intermittent closures due to the prevalence of COVID-19.

Earlier, the NCOC has made vaccinations mandatory for students, teaching, and non-teaching staff. From October 15, only fully vaccinated students will be allowed to enter campuses.

Here are the guidelines NCOC, issued on September 14, for the vaccination of students:

  • Students, 12 to 17 years, with impaired immune systems will be administered the Pfizer vaccine.
  • The age group for vaccination has been lowered to 17 years.

For people below the age of 18 years, the Child Registration Certificate (B- Form) number will be used for registration in NIMS (National Immunisation Management System)

Meanwhile, the NCOC said in a statement that the country reported 1,453 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking up the positivity ratio to 2.82 percent, while 46 people lost their lives to the virus.

The country has posted as many as 1.25 million coronavirus cases, 28,032 deaths, and 1.18 million recoveries from the pandemic, the forum said.

Pakistan has administered more than 87 million vaccines, with 31 million second doses and 62 million first doses, according to the data shared by the NCOC.

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