ISLAMABAD: The number of coronavirus jabs administered is increasing with each passing day as National Command and Operation Centre on Wednesday said 1.13 million people were vaccinated over the last 24 hours.
The development came a day after Pakistan hit a target to vaccinate one million people a day against the contagious disease, making strides in its inoculation campaign just weeks away from a deadline for workers in public-facing roles to obtain vaccination certificates.
According to the details shared by the body, vaccinations administered across Pakistan on Tuesday stood at 1,139,580.
It further shared the total vaccines administered until now have reached beyond the figure of 33 million.
The drive has witnessed a surge in Covid-19 vaccinations in recent weeks after the federal government and provinces imposed strict curbs on movement and announced actions against unvaccinated people.
The government announced last week that from the end of this month that workers in schools, shopping malls and hospitality businesses, and the transport and air travel industries would be barred from entering public offices unless they had a certificate.
Karachi has also seen an increase in the campaign’s pace with the Sindh government announcing special measures to expedite the process through introducing mobile vaccination units, increasing the number of vaccination centres operating round the clock besides also raising the number of centres in every district of the city.
The province has also announced to convert open grounds in Karachi into drive-thru vaccination centres.
Murtaza Wahab, a spokesman for the Sindh government, had said that the province administered 222,000 Covid-19 vaccine jabs on Monday besides also sharing a chart showing that one-fourth of the population of Karachi has been vaccinated against the disease.
SURGE IN TRANSMISSION RATE IN KARACHI:
Meanwhile, after a dip in the surge in Karachi, the positivity rate has again jumped to 23.6 percent in the metropolis, despite strict restrictions.
The provincial health department today said it noted a three percent surge in this rate.
On Tuesday, the Sindh health department had announced a dip in new daily cases in Karachi, recording the rate at 20.1 percent.
Sindh has seen soaring coronavirus infections, fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, putting its fragile health infrastructure under extreme pressure.
After a sluggish start to the inoculation campaign, the new requirement for certificates of vaccination has led to a rush of people seeking shots, with queues stretching over a kilometre outside some vaccination centres, notably in Karachi.
The Sindh government has put extra pressure on people to get vaccinated, warning that it would withhold the salaries of government servants and block people’s cell phone SIM cards unless they had the required certificates.
