ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's federal body dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic issued on Sunday guidelines for upcoming Eid Al-Adha holiday, requiring all vendors selling sacrificial animals to be vaccinated.
The second major religious festival of Islam, known as the "festival of sacrifice," is likely to start this year around July 20-21. As Pakistani Muslims prepare to celebrate, officials and health experts are concerned about coronavirus risks during the festival when people traditionally buy sacrificial goats, sheep and cows at special Eid markets.
The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said it had issued detailed instructions to all federating units for the establishment of cattle markets, which will be allowed only outside urban centers and under strict coronavirus rules.
"Vendors and staff will have to be vaccinated. No sale purchase will be carried out inside the limits of cities/urban centres," the pandemic response body said in a notification.
"Facilities of antigen COVID testing, hand sanitisers and masks will be made available at the entrance point of markets by the management."
The rules will take effect on Monday.
Health authorities in Pakistan have been sounding alarm bells over a recent relaxation in coronavirus restrictions, warning that they may lead to a fourth coronavirus wave in the first week of August, following Eid Al-Adha.
The third COVID-19 wave set in Pakistan in March, forcing the government to impose virus restrictions across the country. This led to a decline in infection rates by May, leading the NCOC to begin easing curbs from June 15.
“Every time our number of cases start going down, we become complacent and reopen everything, which leads to another wave,” Dr. Qaisar Sajjad, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told Arab News last week.
“The (COVID-19) vaccination rate is slow across the country, and we can face another wave in the first week of August, after Eid Al-Adha,” he said.
Pakistan, a country of 220 million, has so far administered only 16.7 million coronavirus vaccine doses.