Pak eases COVID restrictions on transportation and commercial activities

Pakistan on Sunday started easing coronavirus restrictions on transportation and commercial activities, which were suspended for a week to curb the spread of the virus during Eid holidays.

The easing of restrictions came even as the country's coronavirus positivity rose to 7.83 per cent on Sunday, a day after falling to more than two months low to about 5 per cent.

All businesses and public transport were suspended from May 10-16 to stop mass movement during the Eid al-Fitr holidays to curb the spread of the virus.

The National Command and Ope­ra­tion Centre (NCOC) deci­ded to resume public transport from Sunday.

The restriction on transport was eased to help people come back from far off places to join their offices and other duties from Monday when businesses would also open.

The lockdown worked well to contain the spread and pull down the curve as only 1,531 new cases were reported on Saturday, registering a positivity rate of 5.8 per cent which was the lowest since March 8.

But the cases rose to 2,379 in the last 24 hours, taking the national COVID-19 tally to 877,130. The death toll rose to 19,543, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.

The government also started the registration of people aged 30 years and above for vaccination.