LAHORE: As the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued a notification allowing the cities that have achieved more than 60 percent coronavirus vaccination to return to normalcy, only one city of Punjab falls in this category, that is Mandi Bahauddin.

Punjab government on Sunday decided to relax coronavirus restrictions from today (Monday) in the cities of the province having higher vaccination rates. The NCOC has taken this decision after reviewing the pandemic situation all over the country and termed the progress of vaccination “excellent” in the cities where at least 60 percent of the population has been completely inoculated.

Similarly, in the cities where 40pc to 60pc of the population has been vaccinated, the progress has been declared “good” and those with less than 40pc inoculation have been placed in “low” category.

The NCOC has also decided to end non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in the cities in “excellent” category. The intra and inter-district transport has also been allowed to operate with full seating capacity in these cities. In the rest of the cities, transport has been allowed to operate with 80pc seating capacity, but NPIs will remain in place. The new NCOC guidelines will be effective from Nov 1 to 15.

In the light of the NCOC’s new guidelines, Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Imran Sikander Baloch has announced that “all the cities” with 60pc vaccination would return to normalcy from Nov 1 (today).

He said that so far 60pc vaccination had been achieved in Mandi Bahauddin (only), while it was 40pc to 60pc in Rawalpindi and Jhelum and 45pc in Lahore.

He said social activities, including marriage ceremonies, dining, business activities, sports, gyms, cinemas and religious activities were allowed in the highly vaccinated cities, where educational institutes, offices and intra-city and intra-district public transport could operate at 100pc capacity.

He said maximum 500 persons will be allowed to attend the indoor marriage ceremonies and 1,000 in the outdoor events in the cities falling in “good” and “low” categories. Similarly, cinemas could operate till 1am and all recreational places and parks will allow no more than 70pc attendance in the cities falling in these categories.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2021