NCOC meeting: Education, health ministers to decide about schools today

Coronavirus positivity ratio has increased sharply in the past few days especially in Karachi where it touched 40%

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) will hold a meeting today with all the health and education ministers to review the COVID-19 situation in the country and take decisions to curb the virus spread.

The coronavirus positivity ratio has increased sharply in the past few days especially in Karachi where it touched 40% on Sunday.

On Saturday, the NCOC had summoned the meeting after discussing the epidemic curve chart data, disease prevalence, and proposed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in wake of rising disease trends in the country, especially in the urban centers.

The forum asked the ministers to suggest a new set of NPIs today focusing on the education sector, public gatherings, marriage ceremonies, indoor/outdoor dining, and the transport sector.

The NCOC had decided to extensively engage with provinces, especially with the Sindh government for necessary measures to tackle the rising disease.

The apex COVID-19 body had also decided to implement a complete ban on in-flight serving of meals/snacks from January 17 and the Civil Aviation Authority was asked to ensure in-flight mask-wearing and also implement SOPs at all the airports.

Serving of meals and snacks in public transport will also be banned with effect from January 17.

The forum had asked federating units to take strict measures against violators of SOPs especially mask-wearing and to ensure enforcement of obligatory vaccination regime.

It had directed all the quarters to accelerate the ongoing vaccination drive and ramp up efforts to achieve vaccination targets.