Pakistan to lift curbs in cities with over 60% COVID-19 vaccination target
Country close to achieving target of vaccinating 70 million people by year-end
Islamabad: The government has decided to relax COVID-19 restrictions in four cities of Pakistan — Islamabad, Mirpur, Mandi Bahauddin and Gilgit - with effect from November 1 as they have achieved the target of more than 60 per cent vaccination.
According to the Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiative Asad Umar who is also chairman of the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC), the faster the vaccination is carried out in a district, the quicker the restrictions will go.
He asked the people to demand from their respective district administration to accelerate vaccination so life can return to normal as soon as possible.
The minister further announced that from November 1, the government would be assessing districts and cities on the basis of vaccination of their population and the above-mentioned four cities have been found on the highest level.
The ‘medium’ level cities are also doing well. They include: Peshawar, Rawalpinid, Jhelum, Bagh, Bhimber, Skardu, Hunza, Ghizer & Kharmang in GB, the minister further announced.
40 million fully vaccinated
Pakistan is close to achieving 70 million people’s vaccination target by the end of 2021 as according to the NCOC 40 million are completely vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the NCOC, more than 70 million people are partially vaccinated and after 754,680 doses of vaccine administered in the last 24 hours, the number of people vaccinated rose to 70.13 million.
COVID-19 positivity remains below 2%
Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity continues to remain less than 2 per cent.
According to the NCOC, with 733 positive cases diagnosed after 48,192 tests in the last 24 hours, COVID-19 positivity stood at 1.52 per cent.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has climbed to 1,273,078 while after 594 recoveries in the past one day the number of recovered persons has reached 1,221,535.
This also shows the country’s fast recovery rate (96 per cent) against COVID-19. Hence the gap between new cases and recoveries has reduced to a little more than 5,000, the NCOC data reveals.
According to the Ministry of the National Health Services (NHS), currently, there are 23,094 active cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Three die of dengue in Lahore
Three people lost their lives to dengue in Lahore during the last 24 hours and according to the Primary & Secondary Health Department (PSHD) of the Punjab so far, over 25 people in the city have died due to the virus.
The number of deaths due to dengue in the province has reached 45 after the recent fatalities. The total number of patients is recorded at 14,110.
During the past 24 hours, 552 new cases of dengue infection surfaced in the province, 335 in Lahore alone, the health department further reveals.
The Punjab Health Department has directed officials to speed up the process of waste disposal while urging people to cooperate with the government.
The situation in Islamabad and Rawalpindi is equally serious as the total number of cases in Islamabad and Rawalpindi reached 2,600 and 1,100, respectively. This year, 12 people in the capital city succumbed to the dengue.