PM for holding of NCOC meetings at provincial capitals

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday directed for holding of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) meetings in all the provincial capitals, so as to further effectively improve administrative measures in coordination and cooperation of the provincial governments and the concerned administrations with regard to containing coronavirus.

The prime minister was chairing a meeting to review COVID -19 situation in the country. The meeting was attended by Minister for Industries and Production Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusru Bakhtiar, Minister for Interior Brig. (retd) Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Adviser on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, PM’s special assistants Lt. Gen. (Retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa, Dr Shahbaz Gill, Focal person on Covid Dr Faisal Sultan, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt. Gen. Muhammad Afzal and other senior officials, PM office media wing in a press release said.

During the meeting, the prime minister expressed his satisfaction over the positive outcome of steps to control coronavirus and observed that that they would have to make the administrative measures more effective while learning from their experiences to further reduce the cases.

The prime minister was given a detailed briefing on recent situation, regional scenario, positive outcome of the smart lockdown strategy, available facilities and beds in hospitals for the COVID infected patients, and especially the strategy during Eid ul Azha and Muharram ul Haram to control its spread.

It was told that smart lockdown was enforced at 227 areas of 30 different cities which had brought about encouraging results.

The meeting was further briefed that from the experiences of other countries, it was surfaced that complete lockdown did not yield the desired results and after lifting of these lockdowns due to economic hardships, the situation exacerbated besides, increase in death rates.

Contrary to it, the smart lockdown policy in Pakistan remained most effective, it was added.

The prime minister was apprised that due to decreasing number of coronavirus cases, the burden on hospitals was also reduced to a great extent.

Beds with specific treatment facilities for the coronavirus patients had been increased to 1,500 and it would be further taken to a total of 2,500 in the next few days.

The prime minister also directed for ensuring strict implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and all the precautionary measures on the occasion of Eid ul Azha.