On Tuesday, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued fresh guidelines for Eid ul Adha, urging people to follow the issued SOPs as coronavirus cases climb across the country.
COVID cases witnessed a spike in the mid of June, with officials fearing that the infections would spread further due to shopping and the celebrations leading up to Eid ul Adha.
Eid ul Adha will be observed on July 10 and on this festival, animals are sacrificed, which increases human contact, thereby increasing the chance of the event being a super spreader.
In light of this, the NCOC has issued fresh guidelines for the public to follow.
Eid ul Adha prayers
- Eid UI Adha prayers should be organized in open spaces under stringent COVID protocols. In case of any compulsion to offer the prayers inside mosques, then all windows and doors should be kept open for ventilation to minimize the chances of disease spreading.
- Preferably 2-3 Eid prayers should be organized at one single venue with staggered timings to allow maximum people to offer prayers with COVID-19 protocols.
- All ulemas leading Eid prayers should be sensitized to keep sermons and khutbahs short so that people remain present in the prayer venues for a brief duration.
- Efforts should be made to discourage sick, elderly, and young children from attending Eid prayers.
- Under no circumstances should people be allowed to enter the prayer venue without a proper face mask.
- There should be multiple entries and exit points at the prayer venue to avoid jumbling up of individuals/prevent transmission of disease.
- Venue organizers should ensure the availability of a sufficient quantity of hand sanitizers at the entry points. It should be mandatory for all coming for prayers to use sanitizers before entering the venue.
- To ensure social distancing protocols, venue organizers ensure prominent marking (6 feet apart) to allow sufficient space/distance between individuals.
- People should be encouraged to perform ablution at home before coming for the prayers and bring their own prayer mats to the venue.
- Efforts should be made to sensitize people to refrain from embracing and handshaking after the prayer to avoid chances of disease transmission.
- There should not be any gathering at the prayer venue before the prayer and people should be asked to disperse immediately after the prayer.
Management of Qurbani
- Efforts will be made to promote and encourage central/collective Qurbani through various public, private, and community organizations, while ensuring adherence to COVID-19 protocols of mask-wearing, social distancing, avoidance of crowd, etc.
- Continuous engagements will be ensured by provinces with ulemas for encouraging people for central/collective and online Qurbani.
- Individual Qurbani may be allowed, however collective Qurbani will be preferred.
- Provinces to initiate awareness campaigns to educate the masses on the possible spread of COVID during meat distribution, therefore, care must be exercised in meat handling/distribution.
- The slaughtering site should be away from residential areas and preferably in open/vast spaces.
- Crowding at slaughtering should be avoided and a minimum number of persons should be allowed to be present at the site.
- Any other measure as deemed appropriate to contain disease spread.
COVID-19 report
The National Institute of Health (NIH) data from today morning showed that the COVID-19 positive ratio in the country had declined to 3.45%.
A day earlier, a 4.61% COVID-19 positive ratio was recorded in the country with 675 cases.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 18,950 diagnostic tests were conducted, out of which 653 samples came back positive, the data showed.
On a positive note, the country reported no deaths in the last 24 hours from COVID-19.
