ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) has postponed all examinations till June 15 in view of the alarming situation of coronavirus across the country.

This was announced by Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood in a briefing to the media after the NCOC meeting. He said that due to surge in Coronavirus cases, there would be no examinations till June 15 this year.

Shafqat said all the O and A Level exams have also been shifted to October and November. However, he said if some students have some compulsions to take examinations to save their academic year, they would be allowed to take the examinations.

However, he said no examination centre will be allowed to have more than 50 students at a single venue. Shafqat said it has also been decided to extend the new admission dates in the universities to January next. He said the government would not waste the academic year of any student.

Earlier Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan said that the government has so far purchased over 3 million doses of anti-corona vaccine up to 30th March this year.

Talking to media in Islamabad today (Tuesday), he said that deals have been signed for purchase of further 30 million doses.

He said that vaccines are being purchased from three different manufacturing companies while Chinese government has donated 1.7 million doses to Pakistan.

Dr Faisal Sultan said that due to rapid spread of Corona virus across the globe, shortage of vaccine is being witnessed in many countries.

He said that bold steps are being taken to ensure implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Pak Army will assist the civil administration to ensure compliance of SOPs by the general public. He said capability of health care system is being improved in different hospitals.

Dr Faisal Sultan said that the vaccination process is underway successfully across the country without any break. He said that 1200 Covid vaccination centers have been established across the country including 22 mass centers with capacity of vaccination of 5000 doses daily.

He said vaccination of citizens above 50-year of age is continuing with walk-in- facility while registration of citizens above 40-year age has been started today. He said that list of vaccination centers is available on the website of NCOC. He said these centers are open throughout the whole week except Friday and vaccination is being conducted after Iftaar also.

He once again appealed the nation to observe the Corona SOPs strictly to contain the rapid spread of the virus.

Pakistan has reported 142 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 804,939. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 17,329 on Tuesday.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 4,487 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. NNI