The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has issued stricter guidelines for a number of cities, scaling back market closure timings from 10 pm to 8 pm, as the fourth wave of the coronavirus gains strength.
Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar announced the revised restrictions in a press conference on Monday. Addressing the press conference the NCOC chief said the government is taking “targeted and staggered” decisions after much thought and deliberation to curb the spread of the virus – now mostly fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus.
The new guidelines
According to the new guidelines
- Markets will now be closed at 8 pm instead of 10 pm.
- Markets will be closed 2 days in a week. Provinces will decide closure days.
- The government has also resumed the 50 percent work from home policy.
- Indoor dining has been banned once again.
- Outdoor dining will now be allowed only till 10 pm, with delivery and takeaway permitted.
- Public transport can operate with 50% occupancy.
The new restrictions will be applicable from August 3 till August 31 and will be applicable in the cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Faisalabad, Multan, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad, Gilgit, and Skardu.
Asad Umar said the latest decisions have been taken with the permission of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Describing the current Covid-19 situation, he said the virus had spread rapidly in the past week, with cases, positivity ratio, and hospitalizations all witnessing a spike.
Explaining the rationale for restrictions such as on indoor dining, Asad Umar said: “Unfortunately the permission we had given for indoor dining, mandating that only those who are vaccinated [would be allowed], it wasn’t being applied and compliance and implementation was very weak.
“Our administration was also saying that it was not possible to go and check in every restaurant whether only vaccinated people were being allowed; that is why indoor dining is being banned,” he added.
The new restrictions come after the Sindh government instituted a province-wide partial lockdown on Friday from July 31 to Aug 8 due to the rising number of coronavirus cases.
The fourth wave of the pandemic has continued its upward trajectory in Pakistan, with 5,026 cases reported on Sunday in a 24-hour period — the highest number of daily cases in the country since April 29 when 5,112 infections were reported.