The National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) Wednesday decided to loosen some of the coronavirus restrictions that it earlier put in place after carefully reviewing the existing non-pharmaceutical interventions.

The NCOC added that the decisions could be reviewed again in view of the increased disease prevalence, whenever deemed necessary.

According to a statement issued in this regard, provinces can, however, enforce targeted NPIs where required, depending upon disease prevalence in a given area or sector.

Following are some of the decisions taken by the NCOC.

Time-limit lifted from commercial activities and amusement parks;

Condition of 50% work from home removed for office employees;

Indoor wedding ceremonies will be allowed from March 15, 2021, with stringent COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place;

Indoor dining allowed from March 15, subject to a review on March 10;

Opening of cinemas and shrines allowed with strict COVID-19 SOPs with effect from March 15;

Wearing of face masks, social distancing, smart lockdowns will continue and will be ensured;

From a health perspective, the conduct of local bodies and cantonment board elections may be planned by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by the end of May or early June 2021.

Spectators' attendance in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) Pool matches to be increased to 50 % from the current 20%. Whereas, full attendance will be allowed for play-offs with stringent COVID-19 SOPs in place.

During the last 24 hours (Tuesday), another 50 people died in Pakistan whereas 1,196 more infected by the novel coronavirus.

 The death toll has surged to 12,708 after the addition of 50 more fatalities while the number of total confirmed cases stood at 574,580 after adding, 1,196 infections.

 During the past 24 hours (Tuesday), 1,964 patients have recovered from the virus while the number of total recoveries stood at 538,207. The total count of active cases across Pakistan stood at 23,665.

 As many as 256,741 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 168,891 in Punjab, 71,282 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 43,753 in Islamabad, 19,004 in Balochistan, 9,955 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 4,954 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

 As many as 5,269 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab, 4,301 in Sindh, 2,053 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 494 in Islamabad, 293 in Azad Kashmir, 199 in Balochistan and 102 in Gilgit Baltistan.

 A total of 38,453 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours (Tuesday) while 8,790,986 samples have been tested so far.