ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Thursday decided to open the doors of educational institutions for normal classes from Oct 11.

A meeting of the NCOC decided to reopen the educational institutions based on the reduced level of Covid-19 spread and the launch of vaccination programme in schools, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said in a tweet.

“Based on the reduced level of disease spread and the launch of the school vaccination program, it has been decided in today’s NCOC meeting to allow all educational institutions to start normal classes from Monday the October 11,” tweeted Mr Umar, who heads the NCOC.

It may be mentioned that the educational institutions were earlier operating on a 50 per cent capacity across the country after they had reopened following intermittent closures due to the fourth wave of Covid-19.

The NCOC asked the provinces to speed up the vaccination drive to further stop the spread of the disease.

The NCOC has devised a comprehensive plan with the collaboration of the National Database and Registration Authority and district administrations to target tehsils which were lagging behind others in terms of vaccination.

In a tweet, Asad Umar also criticised the UK government for its decision not to accept Chinese vaccine against Covid-19. “UK decides gora (western) certificates and vaccines are ok but most non gora vaccine certificates and Chinese vaccines are not. This despite widespread evidence of fake certificates in US & Europe. Chinese vaccines are WHO approved. Health considerations or hangover of a colonial mindset?”

Though the United Kingdom had taken Pakistan off the travel restrictions last month, it did not accept Chinese vaccines. Pakistanis travelling to the UK had to spend 10 days in isolation there even though they got both doses of Chinese vaccination.