NCOC announces walk-in vaccination for over 18 years

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday announced the start of walk-in vaccination facility for teachers for the safety of students in schools and examination halls.

"To ensure safe environment for education and conduct of exams, walk-in vaccination for teachers above 18 years of age is opened," it said in a tweet. The NCOC, the country's nerve centre for Covid-19 response, said teachers could walk into any Covid-19 vaccination centre with computerised national identity cards, stamped letters from heads of the respective educational institution or teacher ID cards, to get them vaccinated against the virus.

On the other hand, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said the NCOC decided on Friday to open up walk-in vaccination for people aged 30 and above from Saturday.

The minister, who also heads the NCOC, took to Twitter and urged all individuals aged 30 or above and registered for coronavirus vaccination to go to any centre to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, around 26 more patients died from COVID-19 while another 702 new cases were confirmed in Punjab province during the last 24 hours. Of these 26 deaths, six deaths were reported from District Lahore alone, bringing the total number of COVID-related deaths to 4,050 in the provincial metropolis alone.

According to report issued by Primary and Secondary Healthcare (P&SH) Department Punjab on Friday, the death toll so far reached 9,925 in Punjab, while confirmed cases became 337,775 in the province. Around 20,903 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours raising the number of total tests to 5,075,900 in the province while 307,716 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the province so far.

Muhammad Qasim adds Rawalpindi: As many as 195 new patients have been tested positive for coronavirus illness, COVID-19 in the last 24 hours from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district showing the outbreak is still intense in the region, though the positivity rate of COVID-19 has dropped down to below five per cent.

The virus claimed another six lives from the twin cities that took the death toll from the region to 1,711. It is also alarming that as many as 27 patients belonging to the twin cities have died of the illness in the last week.