Covid 4th wave: Govt announces new restrictions from August 3 amid rising cases

Federal Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, told a presser that the new resirtcions would come into force from August 3 to August 31, 2021. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan was also present.

"The markets will remain closed for two days a week. The traders will close their shops by 8pm instead of 10pm. The indoor dining will be disallowed in large cities throughout the country."

The minister said the outdoor dining will be allowed until 10pm instead of 12am, while takeaway and home-delivery services from restaurants will be allowed 24 hours a day. 

"The public transport will operate on a 50 per cent capacity to avoid crowding inside vehicles," Asad said.

Shops and markets will remain closed twice a week, he said, adding that provincial governments will decide about the safe days.

Offices will continue to operate on a 50 per cent capacity and appealed to the masses to get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible, he added.

According to the NCOC, in Punjab restrictions will be imposed in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Multan; while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar and Abbottabad will have the new restrictions. 

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, restrictions will be imposed in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur. In Gilgit-Baltistan, the new rules will apply to Gilgit and Skardu.

In Sindh, lockdowns are already in place in Karachi and Hyderabad, but after August 8, the NCOC's new curbs will also apply, Asad said.

Asad Umar said a large portion of our society was daily wagers who could not afford a complete lock down.

“Therefore in order to ensure their livelihoods and to save them from the pandemic, the government had developed a balanced and targeted lock down strategy.”

He said the number of COVID patients were rising especially in big cities, and the hospitalized patients were also increasing.

The minister also called upon the people to get vaccinated as early as possible to keep themselves safe from the delta variant of the virus.

He said as per data, the people who got first dose of COVID vaccine were three times safer than those who were not inoculated yet while the people with both doses were three times safer than those who got only first jab.

As many 5,026 case were reported in the 24 hours' period on Sunday, the highest number of daily cases in the country since April 29 when 5,112 infections were reported.