PESHAWAR: The government has relaxed Covid-19 restrictions in six more districts due to a decline in coronavirus positivity rate and increased vaccination against the pandemic as the health department is struggling to ensure immunisation of students and staff in private schools.

A notification issued by the home and tribal affairs department on Wednesday said that Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed in Orakzai, Swabi, Kurram, Buner, Abbottabad and Battagram owing to progress on immunisation and slump in infectivity level of the virus.

A fortnight ago, the department had exempted three districts including Peshawar, Chitral and Mansehra from Covid-19 restrictions and had retained standard operating procedure in rest of the province.

Now, except nine districts, the restrictions would remain in place in accordance with the decision of National Command and Operation Centre, which has issued guidelines to ensure precautionary measures in cities with low vaccination rate and high positivity rate.

The notification said that government had decided to incentivise high vaccination cities allowing them to revert to normal activities through relaxation in non-pharmaceutical interventions.

Meanwhile, the health officials said that 12 million (50 per cent) people in the province received first dose and 33 per cent second got second dose of the vaccine.

“We have to inoculate 24 million target people above 12 years through an ongoing process of administering jabs to them at the centres working in government hospitals,” they said.

They said that it was needed to motivate the recipients of first dose of the vaccine to get second shot and stay safe.

They added that about 8 million people (33 per cent of the target population) had got first dose and were required to get the second one.

The officials said that vaccination was above 50 per cent in urban areas of Peshawar but it was 30 per cent in rural parts of the provincial capital. The main issue was reluctance on the part of private schools to ensure vaccination of students and staff, they added.

“We have held meeting with the authorities concerned to ensure inoculation of all their students and workers as it has been declared an obligatory regime. The schools not cooperating would be closed,” they said.

According to law invoked to ensure compliance with the Covid-19 SOPs, the district administration can close schools and impose a penalty of Rs1 million on them.

The officials said that in each district, a daily meeting took place with deputy commissioners in the chair to review Covid-19 related matters including immunisations and adherence to (SOPs.

They said that the meetings made decisions in accordance with the guidelines issued from office of chief secretary.

They said that private schools had their own issues. Many of the parents were unwilling to give consent for vaccination of their sons and daughters, they said.

The notification of home department said that outdoor marriages were allowed only for fully vaccinated maximum 500 guests and indoor for 300 immunised participants while outdoor gatherings would be allowed for fully vaccinated 1,000 people.

Indoor and outdoor dining is allowed for fully vaccinated individuals till 11:59pm whereas indoor dining can take place with 50 per cent occupancy and home delivery will be allowed round-the-clock.

All public and private offices and departments will continue work with full attendance of staff but all employees must be fully vaccinated.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2021