ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Saturday urged citizens help to report violations of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) imposed against the Covid-19 pandemic in an effort to avoid a second wave.
“With the arrival of second wave and continued wide scale violation of the SOPs, the NCOC has decided to seek citizens help for SOP compliance,” Geo News quoted NCOC chairman and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar as saying in a tweet.
He asked people to take pictures of SOP violations such not wearing masks or not maintaining social distancing in crowded places and send those images to a government-issued number along with the location.
Pakistan reported 807 new confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, which increased the country’s total infection tally to 332,993.
The NCOC said 11 people succumbed to the virus in hospitals during this period, while 539 patients recovered.
The country’s total death toll and overall active cases currently stand at 6,806 and 12,121, respectivelt.
On Thursday, Umar had revealed that Pakistan’s Covid-19 positivity rate exceeded the 3 per cent mark after more than 70 days, due to which the “NCOC has tightened restrictions on some high risk public activities”.
In July, the country’s positivity rate dropped to less than 2 per cent, but it started increasing last month.
The highest positivity rate was 23 per cent in July and the minimum was reported at 1.7 per cent in September, Dawn news reported.