The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced on Wednesday that coronavirus vaccines will be mandatory for all public and private sector employees, adding that government employees must be fully vaccinated by June 30.

The directives were issued after a meeting of the NCOC, chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, which reviewed the ongoing vaccination campaign and implementation of Covid-19 SOPs. The body decided to ease some of the Covid-19 restrictions in view of the declining number of cases in the country.

Besides, the meeting also decided the following:

• Introduction of certain incentives for various sectors to encourage vaccinations
• All vaccination centres to remain open from 8am to 10pm daily from June 11 (except Sundays)
• From June 11 onwards, citizens above 18 years of age will be able to avail the walk-in facility at vaccination centres.

During the meeting, the NCOC also decided to ease some restrictions that were put in place earlier to stem the spread of the virus.

• Restriction on closure of two days a week to be relaxed to one day. Choice of day will be at the discretion of federating units
• Existing 50 per cent work from home policy to be relaxed to 100pc office attendance
• Selected non-contact sports to be permitted
• Partial opening of indoor gyms for vaccinated members only
• Ban on closure of shrines to remain in place
• Cinemas to remain shut

Pakistan's coronavirus positivity rate has been recorded at 2.54 per cent in the past 24 hours — the second day in a row that the positivity rate remained below 3pc. According to the health ministry, 43,900 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours, of which 1,118 people tested positive.

Besides, 335,790 people were administered Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday, according to the NCOC.

“The more [people] we vaccinate, the better we will be protected [against Covid-19],” said Umar, appealing to people to partake in the vaccination campaign.

Pakistan also held a ceremony today to mark the deliverance of the 10 millionth vaccine dose. On the occasion, Umar said that the government aimed to inoculate 70 million people by the end of the year.