COAS compliments NCOC’s civ-mil components: Assessment of corona’s sectoral impact must

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday emphasised the need for continued stratified risk assessment, managing trinity of health crisis, economic slide and psycho-social impact through efficient resource management amid the coronavirus crisis.

The COAS maintained that the Pakistan Army in collaboration with other national institutions should take all possible measures to bring comfort to the nation in these challenging times, particularly during the holy month of Ramazan.

General Bajwa said this during his visit to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC). The COAS lauded remarkable efforts of the NCOC for formulating and implementing COVID-19 response despite resource and time constraints. The COAS complimented the civil-military components of the NCOC and emphasised continued risk assessment, managing trinity of health crisis, economic slide and psycho-social impact through efficient resource management.

The COAS was received by Commander Army Air Defence Command and National Coordinator NCOC Lieutenant General Hamooduz Zaman Khan. General Bajwa was briefed in detail by DG Operations and Planning NCOC Major General Asif Mehmood Goraya about COVID-19 related multi sectoral situation, implementation of NCOC decisions, projections about likely spread of the disease in Pakistan and support being extended to civil administration against the pandemic.

The COAS was also apprised about national strategy for test, trace and quarantine (TTQ) aimed at identifying disease spread, focused clusters and hotspots to enable targeted lockdowns and need driven resource optimisation at all levels.