COVID-19: NCOC issues fresh guidelines for marriage halls

ISLAMABAD: After the owners refused to accept previous restrictions amid fears of a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has issued revised standard operating procedures (SOPs) for marriage halls.
As per details, the NCOC issued a notification to provincial chief secretaries and health secretaries renewing guidelines for the marriage halls, to be enforced across 20 major cities of the country from November 20.
As per the fresh guidelines, outdoor marriage activities would be allowed in 16 cities and up to 1000 guests could attend the ceremony.
While the indoor and outdoor arrangements could be made for marriage ceremonies in four other cities. For indoor marriage ceremonies, only 300 guests would be permitted to attend the event at a time while 500 guests could attend the ceremony in an outdoor arrangement.
It is worth mentioning here that the marriage hall owners had rejected the ban imposed on indoor gatherings at wedding halls by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) from November 20.
The wedding hall owners on Saturday summoned a consultative meeting to devise a strategy following the government order banning indoor weddings from the third week of the ongoing month.
They demanded the government to review its decision and maintained that all coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs) being fully implemented in the marriage halls.