Islamabad: One-third of Pakistan’s total population (around 30 per cent) and 46 per cent of the eligible population have been fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both, the first and the second, doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
This was announced by the country’s nerve centre, the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) monitoring the coronavirus situation in the country.
By Thursday, according to the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), 69.53 million persons stood fully vaccinated in Pakistan where total population is 221 million.
This is less than 500,000 doses from the government’s target of complete vaccination of 70 million population by the end of the year, 2021.
In the next twenty-four hours the target will most likely be achieved as daily around 1 million people are being vaccinated, according to the health ministry’s officials.
COVID-19 cases record an upward trend
Meanwhile with reporting of more than 75 Omicron cases across the country, COVID-19 cases are showing an upward trend, active cases going beyond 10,000 and positivity rate almost 1 per cent.
According to the NCOC, after 59,662 tests across the country, 482 returned positive in last 24 hours showing 0.95 per cent COVID-19 positivity and registering more than 10,000 active cases.
This upward trend has rung alarm bells among the health authorities of the country prompting the NCOC to write to provinces for accelerated vaccination drive and sticking to COVID-19 SOPs.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) in a statement also said that vaccination was Pakistan’s only defence against COVID-19 variant.
“Vaccination and SOPs (standard operating procedures) continue to be our best defence against Covid-19 despite the mutations being reported. All government-approved Covid-19 vaccines available in Pakistan remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation. The government urges everyone to get both doses of Covid-19 vaccine as well as the booster dose as per the eligibility criteria and process. More details are available at the NCOC website (ncoc.gov.pk) and Sehat Tahaffuz Helpline (1166),” the statement said.
Pakistan is to receive 11 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine as four special flights of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) airlifted fresh consignment from Beijing.
Three special flights of the national flag carrier i.e. PAK-6852, PAK-6853 and PK-6854 have already transported a total of nine million doses of Sinovac vaccine from December 28 to December 30, he told APP.
PIA special flight PK-6855 carrying two million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines was scheduled to leave the Chinese capital Thursday evening.
From December 10 to December 15, PIA transported 15 million doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines by five special flights from Beijing to Islamabad.
Pakistan was the first country in the world, which received a coronavirus vaccine from the Chinese government as a donation.
The government of Denmark has also donated more than 484,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses to Pakistan through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Over 484,000 Covid-19 Moderna vaccine doses, donated by the embassy of Denmark were presented to the government of Pakistan today,” the UNICEF tweeted a day earlier.
So far more than 155 million people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine across the country.
