Only vaccinated individuals to travel by air from Sept 10: NCOC

Dunya News

The NCOC has reduced interval between the first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) on Wednesday decided not to allow unvaccinated people to travel by air after September 10.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday, the NCOC said after consultation with the Ministry of Health and medical experts, it has been decided to speed up vaccination in the country.

The statement further said that the interval between the first and second doses of the vaccine has been reduced from 42 days to 28 days.

In addition, the NCOC has made vaccination mandatory for air travel after September 10 and a partial vaccination certificate will not be valid for travel after September 10.

Earlier, NCOC meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar had decided that only vaccinated individuals would be allowed to travel by rail from October 1.

The meeting had also expressed concern over the growing spread of COVID-19 in the country and especially in Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

The forum issued instructions to the concerned districts to implement the safety protocols and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and had also considered the measures to be taken in view of the arrival of Muharram.

The forum had expressed satisfaction with the vaccination process, and called for steps to be taken to administer the second dose in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday reported 81 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 1,080,360. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 24,085.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 4,856 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.


Province-wise Details


Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Till now 11,256 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 6,275 in Sindh, 4,588 in KP, 822 in Islamabad, 654 in Azad Kashmir, 332 in Balochistan, and 158 in GB.

Furthermore 403,964 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 367,054 in Punjab, 149,532 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 91,672 in Islamabad, 31,298 in Balochistan, 27,899 in Azad Kashmir and 8,941 in Gilgit-Baltistan.


Tests and Recoveries


Pakistan has so far conducted 16,616,130 coronavirus tests and 65,690 in the last 24 hours 972,098 patients have recovered in the country whereas 4,513 patients are in critical condition.