Covid jab mandatory for air travel

NCOC says tally of active cases soars past 54,000

ISLAMABAD:

The government announced on Saturday new measures to increase the anti-Covid vaccination, as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) made the vaccine certificate mandatory for air travel, while Punjab decided to launch a door-to-door vaccination campaign from Monday.

The measures come as the number of active Covid cases in the country surpassed 54,000, while the number of critical patients in hospitals topped 2,500, according to the NCOC. The national positivity ratio which stood above 5% the other came down slightly to 4.89%.

The NCOC, which serves as the nerve centre of the government’s unified anti-Covid strategy, declared on Saturday that from next month, the Covid-19 vaccination certificate would be mandatory for domestic air travel and urged the masses to get vaccinated by July 31.

In a tweet, the NCOC said that the restriction aimed at encouraging Covid-19 vaccination and allow vaccinated individuals only to avail domestic air travel facility. “Get yourself vaccinated by July 31 and get a vaccination certificate to avoid any inconvenience in this regard,” the forum said.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government decided on Saturday to launch a door-to-door coronavirus vaccination campaign from July 26 (tomorrow) in five cities of the province — Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan, and Rawalpindi to meet the targets set by the NCOC.

“The NCOC has set a target of vaccinating 40% adult population in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and 70% of the population of Rawalpindi by August 14,” provincial Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said, adding that vaccination centres in Lahore were being increased to facilitate more people.

The NCOC said in its daily update that 1,841 more people were tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours, while 1,310 people recovered from the disease. It added that 32 patients died during the past 24 hours.

Among the fatalities, the forum added, 29 breathed their last while being under treatment in the hospitals, including 16 on ventilators. According to the update, most of the deaths, 15, occurred in Punjab, followed by 8 in Sindh. The national caseload of the disease rose to 1,001,875, including 924,782 recoveries, the NCOC said.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)