Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan said that the government was making all out efforts for availability of COVID-19 vaccine at all vaccination centres and more doses were expected to arrive soon. Talking to media on Friday, Dr Sultan said that this issue was temporary which would be resolved soon although more than 20 million citizens have been vaccinated.
He said that the vaccine situation in the country would improve in coming days and more vaccines would reach Pakistan.
He said that the government was in contact with local and provincial administrations to make up the shortfall. “We are carrying out load balancing and redistribution locally to manage the situation across the country.”
He advised the citizens to strictly follow COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the offices and markets to prevent the disease. “COVID-19 is a deadly virus but we can control it just as we controlled it by following the SOPs during its first and second waves”, he said.
He also urged the people to register themselves for Covid process and get vaccinated as soon as possible.
While, reports emerged on Thursday said, Pakistan has made a bulk purchase deal of coronavirus vaccines with China. Pakistan has made various agreements of buying over 27.5 million vaccine doses of China made vaccines, officials at National Institute of Health (NIH) said. The doses of Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino vaccines being purchased under the vaccine procurement agreements, agencies said, adding, “Under the procurement agreements raw material and prepared coronavirus vaccines being purchased from the Chinese companies”. Pakistan has signed a deal of the procurement of 23 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, according to sources. Sinopharm will provide vaccine consignments to Pakistan in phases till December this year.
COVID situation: The COVID-19 has claimed 39 more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, lifting the overall death toll to 21,913.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, the country’s caseload climbed to 945,184 after 1,043 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during this period. The positivity rate was recorded at 1.90 per cent.
The new infections emerged when 54,647 tests were conducted during the said period. With 1,410 recoveries over the past 24 hours, the total number of recovered patients has reached 888,505, while the total number of tests to diagnose the pandemic is recorded at 14,026,336. Punjab remains the worst-hit province as 344,641 cases have been reported so far since the pandemic outbreak. Sindh follows with 330,552 cases, according to the NCOC dashboard.
136,663 COVID-19 cases have been detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 82,278 in Islamabad, 26,466 Balochistan, 19,868 Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and 5,759 cases have been recorded in Gilgit-Baltistan.
