Bad management of tourism opening may create pandemic outbreak: NCOC

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday discussed the SOPs and rules on reopening the tourism sector, noting that failure to observe proper implementation of above mentioned procedures may result “create pandemic outbreak”.

“The NCOC meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar discussed opening up of tourism sector with standard operating procedures (SOPs) and safety guidelines for containment of disease,” read a statement from the government body responsible for battling the coronavirus pandemic.

“The forum highlighted that violations of SOPs have been observed at almost all tourist destination and emphasized that, if tourism not managed well, it might create a pandemic outbreak. KB, GP and AJK Administrations were requested to make all out efforts to enforce SOPs on visiting tourists including use of facemask (No Mask No Tourism) and density control.”

Provinces were urged, during the meeting, to control the flow of tourists to the provinces in order to keep the pandemic in check.

The government body stressed that “special efforts to ramp up testing and contact tracing of tourists through establishing of special sentinel sites at tourist spots & airports will be ensured” for the next three weeks.

Detailed SOPs on tourism have already been issued, however, Ministry of Health will formulate and issue special guidelines and action plan for tourist management.