ISLAMABAD: As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, Prime Minister Imran Khan formally shut down the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), which oversees the government’s pandemic response, and kept the country on track for daily cases, deaths, Keeps on track for recovery. , kept updated on the number of vaccinations. , e.t.c
Two years after the center was established and two weeks after the government announced that Covid has returned to normalcy since March 2020, infecting over 1.5 million Pakistanis and killing 30,355.
“Today, as the NCOC closes, I want to congratulate the NCOC team and its leadership for a professional, nationally coordinated response to the pandemic. As a result, our COVID response has been recognized by [international] agencies and people in the field as one of the most successful globally,” tweeted Premier.
Planning Minister Asad Umar, who was heading the Centre, also announced its closure in a Twitter post: “Today is the last day of NCOC operation. With the COVID indicators at an all-time low and high of vaccination, the baton is now being given to the health ministry. It has been the greatest privilege and honor of my life to preside over the NCOC and work with the most dedicated team during the last two years.”
Prime Minister, Government officials praise the Center as a success story; National Institute of Health will now deal with matters related to the pandemic
“With the mercy of Allah and the support of the entire nation, we have been able to overcome this unprecedented challenge. I feel very proud as a Pakistani [the country] It has received praise from global agencies and celebrities for its COVID response as one of the most successful in the world,” he said.
Addressing a press conference with Dr Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Mr Omar said that “we have learned to live with the pandemic”.
He said that the author of the success story is Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He thanked the public for cooperating with the government and following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
“The role of the federal and provincial health departments, the Pakistan Army, was, [National Disaster Management Authority] Team to provide logistics to hospitals, civil bureaucracy, judiciary and business community to make this a success. Director General of Operations Major General Asif Mahmood Goraya is a hero who has played a major role in NCOC,” he said.
Dr Sultan and his team also played a major role in controlling the pandemic, the minister said, adding that front-line health workers were also the real heroes who risked their lives to save people from the pandemic.
Later, Dr Sultan informed that the National Institute of Health’s Center for Disease Control (NIH-CDC) will now deal with cases related to COVID.
“As the NCOC transitions into its many roles in the new CDC of the NIH, I would like to thank all the colleagues with whom I have had the great opportunity to serve and learn. It was a remarkable coordination mechanism that has helped in preventing the spread of COVID-19 in Pakistan. It has helped in the fight against -19. This has been instrumental in the efforts of Dr. Sultan.
University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Jawed Akram backed the decision to hand over the job to the NIH, which he had set up to tackle the pandemic. “We should have only one department to deal with the pandemic. Setting up new departments for diseases may not be cost-effective,” he said.
Responding to a question, Dr Akram said that the civil and military departments have set a positive example by working in unison, but “we must come out of firefighting mode”.
“There should be an early warning system to deal with the pandemic. There should be a dashboard for diseases and real-time data should be uploaded. We need to keep an eye on global developments and be prepared to deal with the pandemic.
However, Sahabzada Saud, research and data management team lead for the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), told dawn There were many loopholes in the health system and the NCOC addressed those gaps.
“I still believe that there are gaps in the health management system. There is no capacity, especially at the provincial level, to deal with health issues. For a decade or more, the world has faced several pandemics, such as that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola and COVID-19. It shows that we may have to face more pandemics in the future. NCOC did well and also the vaccination process Well managed,” he said.
Mr Saud, who has dealt with Phafen’s Covid reports, said the health ministry may not be able to deal with such issues because of a lack of capacity. He added that NCOC has developed coordination between federal and provincial governments and manages vaccination well.
Since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, 219,368,557 doses of the vaccine have been given. 128,074,138 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, of which 101,881,176 have been fully vaccinated and 4,869,245 have received booster shots.
NCOC had daily meetings, which were jointly chaired by Mr. Umar and NCOC’s National Coordinator Major General Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and attended by Dr. Sultan.
In addition, it had representation of all the provinces and administrative units. The data was shared every eight hours and updated at least once a day.
“It was Major General Babar Iftikhar who turned this idea into a practical center through Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR),” said a senior official of the Ministry of National Health Services. dawn On condition of anonymity, it said that the NCOC was established on March 27, 2020.
“Rs 50 billion of the national exchequer was saved by NCOC in the form of free media campaigns. More than 40 campaigns were conducted by the Centre. It got appreciation from Bill Gates, World Health Organization (WHO) and many other organizations,” he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the meeting of the NSC and directed the concerned officials to formulate a comprehensive strategy to contain the spread of the disease.
However, the lockdown was announced on March 16 that year and several industries including construction, educational institutions, restaurants, marriage halls etc. were shut down.
Published in Dawn, April 1, 2022