-Finalizes deal to import two mln doses of Sputnik V
-2,566 new infections, 135 more fatalities reported
-Sindh decides to launch drive-through Vaccination campaign
By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus on Tuesday has claimed 135 more lives across Pakistan during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 19,752, according to National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
According to the NCOC, 2,566 new COVID-19 infections were reported during the said period. It said that overall 882,928 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country of which 792,522 have recovered from it. The positivity ratio was recorded at 8.61 percent in the last 24 hours. As many as 29,801 tests were conducted to diagnosis the deadly virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of tests currently stands at 12,510,568.
4,443 patients are said to be critical. Punjab reported the most 328,775 cases followed by Sindh with 299,913 infections, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 127,224 infections, while Balochistan has registered 23,931 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.
The federal capital, according to NCOC, reported 79,371 cases and federally administered areas including Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) witnessed 5,428 and 18,286 respectively.
Moreover, Pakistan’s armed forceson Tuesday have finalized a deal of two million doses of the Russian vaccine of coronavirus ‘Sputnik V’.
The first consignment of 2,00,000 doses of Sputnik V has been present at the Abu Dhabi airport to be transported to Pakistan.
An aircraft of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will airlift the first batch of the Russian vaccine from Abu Dhabi to the country, according to sources. Recently private hospitals in major cities of the country had started inoculation with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine imported by a pharmaceutical company.
Pakistan in its coronavirus vaccination drive mostly used vaccines imported from China. The country on Sunday received another consignment of COVID-19 vaccine from China comprising of 1.2 million doses.
The Ministry of Health received a batch of 10,00,000 doses of the SinoVac and 200,000 jabs of the CanSino vaccine procured from China.
The sources further shared that another batch of two million COVID vaccine-SinoVac will reach Islamabad on May 21.
In a bid to expedite the vaccination process in the country, Pakistan has signed contracts for the purchase of the COVID vaccine with several companies including Chinese firms.
Pakistan has recently started registration of its population over 30-years for vaccination.
Earlier on May 9, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had announced that Pakistan received nearly 12 million doses of corona vaccine so far.
The country has received overall 11.9 mln doses of China’s Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino COVID-19 vaccines and AstraZeneca from the COVAX, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said in its statement. COVAX had provided 1.23 mln vaccine doses of Oxford University’s AstraZeneca, the NCOC further said.
While, The Sindh government on Tuesday has decided to start drive-through vaccination strategy in the province to hike the daily vaccination rate. The government under a strategy, has decided to inoculate people with coronavirus vaccine at different public places using mobile vans.
The vaccine vans will initiate vaccination at the Sea View, shopping plazas and universities, sources said. Sindh government also making separate arrangements for vaccination of the industrial workers. Special vaccine centres will be established at various industrial areas.
Moreover, vaccination centres will also set up at the offices of the industrial associations, according to sources. The government will launch the mass vaccination drive as soon as the required number of vaccine doses is stockpiled.
