ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Abdul Qadir Patel was appointed new head of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reconstituted the body, ARY News reported on Monday.
The NCOC had ceased to function on March 31 this year and all its functions and responsibilities were officially handed over to National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad.
The Command and Operation Centre was set up in March 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic to collect, analyse and process information in Pakistan’s struggle against the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a notification, Abdul Qadir Patel will be new NCOC head, an umbrella body that led Pakistan’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19).
HEALTH MINISTER ABDUL QADIR PATEL ASSUMES CHARGE – VISITS PIMS
All government departments will continue providing assistance to NCOC operations while the forum will coordinate with all four provincial health departments on Covid-19 situation, the notification stated.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on May 10 directed restoration of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), an umbrella body that led Pakistan’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The step was taken after the recent emergence of new sub-variant of Omicron strain of coronavirus in the country.
Earlier, Pakistan reported the country’s first case of Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced in a statement.
“NIH has detected the first case of Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1. This new sub-variant is causing increasing number of cases in different countries,” the health body had said in a Tweet.
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