NCOC announces 6 Eid holidays

A meeting of the NCOC was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister, Asad Umar, in which the situation of Coronavirus in the country was reviewed and it was decided to follow and implement the "Stay Home, Stay Safe" strategy from May 8 to 16.

NCOC announces ‘Stay Home Stay Safe Strategy’ for mobility control from 8-16th May 21 including Eid ul Fitr holidays pic.twitter.com/6yqo4BnV9r

— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) April 29, 2021

The meeting also announced the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays would start from Monday, May 10 to Saturday, May 15.

There will be 9 holidays for federal government employees starting from Saturday, May 8 to Sunday, May 16, while there will be 8 holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr for provincial employees.

The NCOC further decided that under the "Stay Home Stay Safe" strategy there would be a complete ban on the opening of markets, businesses and shops including henna, jewellery and clothing stalls.

Also, all amusement, public parks, shopping malls will be closed from May 8 to 16.

The NCOC clarified that the purpose of more holidays on Eid is to restrict domestic transport during the festival whereas guidelines issued for Yum Ali, Shab-e-Qadr, Itikaf, Jumat-ul-Wada 'will be implemented from May 1.

Earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had announced that it will not be issuing new notes on Eid ul Fitr this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Like last year, we will not be issuing new banknotes on Eid ul Fitr due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic,” said the SBP in a statement.

Pakistan has reported 151 deaths in one day as the third wave of the pandemic continued to rage across the country.

According to National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), around 5,480 cases of coronavirus were reported while 151 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 17,680.

The total number of confirmed cases reached 815,711. As many as 708,193 patients have recovered from the disease with 5,263 critical cases.