Pakistan kicks off coronavirus vaccination drive

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday appreciated the efforts of his government for moving quickly to secure the Covid-19 vaccine, as well as thanking China for helping Pakistan obtain half a million doses of the vaccine.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the launch of the vaccination drive, the premier reiterated that the vaccine will be first administered to health workers working with Covid-19 patients, followed by the elderly in the high-risk age group.

He added that the vaccine would be evenly distributed among the provinces. He once again appealed to the public to wear a mask and follow the Covid-19 guidelines.

“If Allah has blessed Pakistan as compared to the rest of the world, we should be grateful for that and take full precautions,” he emphasised.

PM Imran saw the first jab of the vaccine being given to a doctor in the federal capital before the ceremony. The first batch of vaccines in the country were donated by China and had arrived by a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) earlier in the day.

Pakistan on Tuesday reported its lowest one-day rise in coronavirus infections since November when the second wave of the pandemic swept the nation following the series of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) protests seeking to oust the government.

The update comes as the government began to ease restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the contagious disease, including reopening of schools and universities across the country.

In the last 24 hours, the government portal keeping track of the disease posted 1,220 new infections after conducting 38,813 tests, receiving back a reduced transmission rate of 3.14 percent.

With the new cases, the total number of coronavirus-positive patients across the country rose to 547,648.

Meanwhile, as many as 63 more people died of virus-related complications over the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 11, 746. The death toll was highest in Punjab followed by Sindh.

Of the total deaths, 4,004 were reported in Sindh; 4,793 in Punjab; 1,912 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP); 475 in Islamabad; 196 in Balochistan; 264 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK); and 102 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) said that of the 34 fatalities reported on January 30, eight were reported in Sindh, 46 in Punjab, six in KP and two in AJK.

A total of 502,537 people have so far recovered from the disease. With this, the total number of recovered coronavirus patients stands at 502,537.

Pakistan has so far conducted about 8,005,794 tests. About 631 hospitals are equipped with Covid-19-related facilities and around 2,508 patients are admitted to hospitals for pandemic-related treatment across the country.

The government has secured 1.2 million doses from China’s Sinopharm, 500,000 of whih arrived on Monday. Frontline healthcare workers in major cities are due to start receiving shots next week, and negotiations are underway for vaccines from other manufacturers, said Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar.

State Minister for Health Dr Faisal Sultan has confirmed the country will also receive 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.

About 6 million of those doses are expected in the country in March with the remaining batches following in the second quarter of the year, he said.