ISLAMABAD             -       As fears of re-emergence of Covid-19 in the country have increased, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday directed to ensure on an emergency basis complete anti-COVID-19 vaccination of children aged five to 12. He was chairing a meeting regarding COVID-19 situation in the country. The Prime Minister said screening of people at the country’s borders and airports should be made more effective. He said a third party audit of the screening system should be carried out and a report be submitted to him. Expressing satisfaction over the Covid-19 situation in the country, the Prime Minister said no death has been reported from the pandemic in Pakistan in the last 15 weeks which is a welcome development. He also expressed satisfaction over the low rate of Covid-19 infection but said we have to be prepared all the times. Shehbaz Sharif commended the efforts put in by all the relevant officials and NCOC to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The meeting was informed in detail about the current situation of Covid in the whole world including the region and in Pakistan, new variants of the pandemic, measures taken to prevent them and the vaccination. It was informed that there is no apparent threat to Pakistan from the new variant of Covid-19 as ninety percent of the country’s population is fully vaccinated and ninety five percent of the population is partially vaccinated. The vaccination rate among 35 million children aged 5 to 12 years is 25 percent, while it will be increased to 100 percent in the coming months. The average rate of infection in Pakistan is 0.2 to 0.5 percent and there has been no death from the pandemic over the last 15 weeks. The meeting was also informed that effective arrangements have been made at the border to prevent the spread of the new variant of COVID-19. The rate of random sampling at airports has been increased to two percent and screening of passengers has been made more effective along with fumigation of aircraft arriving from affected countries. Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has explained that no case of Omicron’s sub-variant BF.7 is detected in Pakistan so far. According to the spokesperson of NIH, since its appearance, a total of 29 cases of XBB (Omicron) have been reported from Pakistan and made it clear that this is not the BF.7 variant which is spread in the neighboring country. Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed the commitment to further strengthen their historic ties anchored in strong economic and trade cooperation. In a telephonic conversation, Prime Minister Shehbaz felicitated the Malaysian counterpart on his election as the prime minister. The two leaders expressed satisfaction over the momentum of Pakistan-Malaysia relations and agreed on the importance of regular high-level exchanges to strengthen bilateral dialogue and cooperation.