ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday decided to open educational institutions, restaurants and tourist destinations from May 24 and issued timeline for a number of other sectors.

However, curbs on shrines, cinemas, indoor dining, contact sports, festivals and indoor/outdoor gatherings will continue while inter-provincial public transport will remain suspended on weekends.

These decisions were taken during a meeting of the NCOC, which was presided over by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar and cochaired by Lt Gen Hamooduz Zaman Khan.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, Sindh health minister and chief secretaries of all provinces and administrative units attended the session via video link.

After conducting a comprehensive review of the disease prevalence in the country and corresponding non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), the meeting decided to set a timeline for opening of various sectors.

It allowed opening of educational institutions from May 24 in districts with less than five per cent positivity ratio in a staggered manner. The meeting also gave a go-ahead to resumption of tourism sector under stringent Covid-19 measures. However, separate instructions on protocols will be issued to the federating units.

Similarly, outdoor dining will be allowed from Monday till 23:59 hours whereas takeaway facility will be available round the clock. Elective surgeries will resume from June 1 while board exams will be held af ter June 20.

The NCOC also permitted holding of outdoor marriage ceremonies, with a maximum 150 individuals, from June 1.

Those educational institutions that will not open on May 24 can resume from June 7, again in a staggered manner. These decisions will be reviewed on May 27.

Professional/non-professional exams, on the other hand, will take place on case-to-case basis as per the recommendation of the education ministry.

The meeting participants decided to keep some of the sec-tors and f acilities closed such as shrines, cinemas, indoor dining, gyms, amusement parks, contact sports, festivals, cultural and other events. However, people can use walking/jogging tracks while adhering to Covid-19 standard operating procedures.

Similarly, there will be ban on all types of indoor/outdoor gatherings (cultural, musical/religious/miscellaneous events) while inter-provincial public transport will not operate on weekends (Saturdays and Sundays).

The meeting once again directed the relevant authorities to ensure that the health guidelines were strictly complied with. Industries in Gadani and Misri Shah will reopen from May 20 (today), however, current in-bound and land border policy will continue till further orders.

On May 17, the NCOC had allowed resumption of normal office working hours with 50pc work-from-home policy, permitted commercial activities till 8pm (less essential services including export-related sector), public transport with 50pc capacity and railways with 70pc occupancy.

The forum decided to carry out a detailed review of the NPIs on May 27 and June 7, respectively.

Meanwhile, data released by the NCOC showed that 3,256 cases and 104 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours with 567 patients on ventilators. The number of active cases was recorded at 66,377 on May 19.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Faisal Sultan said though the number of cases had reduced during the Eid holidays, it could not be said with certainty whether the virus had been controlled.

`Thefactisthatlessnumberof testswasconductedduring the holidays. Af ter two days when tests will increase, we will be in a position to say whether the infection rate has f allen or not,` he added.