Amid a surge in the novel coronavirus cases during the fifth wave of virus fuelled by the Omicron variant, the National Command and Operation Centre has issued fresh standard operating procedures for mosques and worship places across the country.
Under the SOPs issued on Friday, only vaccinated individuals are allowed to offer prayer in mosques or worship places while wearing face masks has been declared mandatory.
The worshippers will be required to maintain a social distancing of at least six feet and mosques have been asked to remove mats and carpets from their premises.
The NCOC has also advised elderly and comorbid persons to prefer offering prayer at home and maintain minimal attendance for the prayer.
The SOPs also recommended use of hand sanitiser frequently and organising prayer in open spaces or ensure proper ventilation to contain the spread of the contagious disease.
It also asked the mosque-goers to prefer performing ablution at home and recommended short sermons for Friday prayer.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has registered 7,678 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, up from 6,808, the second-highest daily toll, since the pandemic started in 2020, official figures showed Friday morning.
With the new infections, the overall cases have moved past 1.35 million. Meanwhile, as many as 59,343 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, and the positivity ratio shot up to 12.93%.
The deaths from coronavirus also went up to 23 in the last 24 hours from five a day earlier, taking the overall death toll to 29,065, official figures showed.
The cases are on the rise, but top officials have refused to impose a lockdown, saying that the country’s economy could not bear the burden of another.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre, the number of active cases rose to over 57,000 while 961 patients were in critical care.
The data also showed that Karachi had the highest positivity rate in the country at 45.43pc, followed by 23.94pc in Muzaffarabad and 18.91pc in Islamabad.
