— NCOC allows up to 100 percent occupancy for Lahore leg of HBL PSL
— Ramiz lauds NCOC’s decision to increase capacity of spectators
— RAT testing abolished for in-bound international travelers
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The nation confirmed 3,338 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday, marking the second day the daily caseload remained below the 5,000-limit.
The health authorities tested 44,779 samples to receive a scaled-down transmission rate of 7.5 per cent. It has remained below the critical threshold of 10 percent for a week now.
Meanwhile, the federal pandemic response agency allowed fans to fill open-air Gaddafi Stadium up to full capacity for the upcoming Lahore leg of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL)
In a statement, the NCOC said it has given the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) the go-ahead to allow spectators up to 50 percent of the capacity in matches until February 15 while 100 percent crowd occupancy has been allowed from February 16 onwards.
The spectators must be fully vaccinated, said the body which also allowed unvaccinated children under 12 years of age to enter the premises.
The spectators, however, will need to keep a distance of 1.5 meters (4.92 feet) between them and wear a face mask, and will be allowed to drink water, but not to eat or smoke.
The infections have fallen consistently since hitting a peak of 7,678 on January 21, and are expected to be fewer than 3,000 by next week, for the first time since September.
Karachi, the nation’s largest city, recorded its highest ever positivity ratio of 46.58 percent on the day.
Today, with the new infections, the total caseload has increased to 1,46 million, including 1,34 million recoveries, the NCOC said.
The number of active cases dropped to 89,192, including 1,684 those who are in critical condition.
According to the NCOC, 38 people died on Sunday while battling against the virus, increasing the overall death toll to 29,516.
Sindh is the most-affected province of the country in terms of the number of cases with 552,262 infections, followed by Punjab which has reported 489,655 cases.
RAT testing rolled back:
Meanwhile, the daily meeting of the NCOC decided to end rapid antigen tests for Covid-19 for inbound international passengers on arrival at airports.
“RAT test will continue to be conducted for deportees from foreign countries and for non-vaccinated individuals arriving from land border terminals,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Islamabad Healthcare Regulatory Authority (IHRA) set new prices for the Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the disease.
The move came after Islamabad reported as many as 291 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate to 7.98 percent.
During a review of the situation, the agency decided to revise the prices. Three companies — Roche, Abbot and Qiagen — will charge Rs5,000 a kit and others Rs3,500.
Ramiz lauds NCOC’s decision:
PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja lauded the NCOC’s decision to increase the capacity of spectators from 25 percent to 50 percent during the Lahore leg matches of the ongoing HBL PSL.
He said he is hopeful that the stadium will be filled with a “good crowd” and Lahore leg matches will be as entertaining as Karachi leg matches.
The Lahore leg matches will kick start on February 10.
