ISLAMABAD:
National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar on Tuesday announced that the eligible age for vaccination against Covid-19 will be lowered to 15 years.
The minister took to his official Twitter handle and said this decision had been made during Tuesday's NCOC meeting.
“Starting September 1, vaccination of 17 years old will start,” he wrote.
He further stated that the “start dates” for the vaccination of 15 and 16-year-olds will be announced later.
Umar added that the “obligatory vaccination regime” has been expanded significantly, after the NCOC meeting.
“Most public places are covered by this obligatory regime”, he added. Access to such public places will now require citizens to be vaccinated.
Read Pakistan gets $2.77b from IMF’s Covid fund
Administrative and technology-based enforcement mechanisms are being developed to ensure high compliance, added the minister.
The NCOC chief's announcements come after the country passed another grim milestone of 25,000 fatalities due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to official data issued by the NCOC on Monday.
According to the centre, the national tally of active Covid-19 cases on Monday was 89,919, one of the highest during the ongoing fourth wave of the pandemic, as 3,772 more people tested positive for the virus while 3,107 people recovered from the disease.
The national Covid positivity ratio during the past 24 hours was 7%. The NCOC update said 5,390 patients were in critical condition, including 486 on ventilators.
