NCOC declares Covid vaccination obligatory for all employees

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Decides to relax some restrictions from Tuesday

The National Command and Operation Centre has declared anti-Covid vaccination obligatory for public and private sector employees, saying that all government servants will have to be vaccinated by the end of this month.
The decision to this effect was taken at an NCOC session held on Wednesday chaired by NCOC chief Asad Umar and co-chaired by National Coordinator Lt Gen Hamood uz Zaman Khan.
The forum also decided to slightly relax restrictions, put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 during the third wave of the virus in the country, from June 15 onwards.
The forum decided that a countrywide mass vaccination campaign will be run under a three-pronged strategy and all citizens will be immunised on a voluntary basis, while certain incentives will be introduced for various sectors to encourage vaccination. It was decided that all vaccination centres will remain open from 8:00am to 10:00pm daily from next Friday, except on Sunday. From Friday onwards, citizens of 18 years plus will be able to avail the walk-in facility in vaccination centres.
The NCOC is in the process of developing IT-based solutions for verification of vaccination certificates which shall be completed by the end of this month.
Taking a comprehensive review of the implementation of Covid-19 SOPs, the NCOC decided to relax the restriction on two-day-a-week closure of businesses to one day – the choice of day will be at the discretion of the federating units. Moreover, indoor gyms were allowed to be partially opened “for vaccinated members only”.
As per the NCOC’s decision, only selective, non-contact sports will be permitted, while ban on contact sports as well as festivals and cultural and other events will remain in place.
The NCOC will also be relaxing the 50 percent work-from-home policy, allowing the offices to ensure 100 percent attendance. Moreover, the two days weekly ban on inter-provincial transport will also be lifted, whereas restrictions regarding 50 percent occupancy for public transport will be relaxed to 70 percent occupancy.
However, ban on closure of shrines will remain imposed, and cinemas will also remain closed.
Current restrictions already announced by the NCOC regarding recreation, education sector, wearing of masks, railways and inbound passengers policy will remain in place till further orders.