Pakistan picks up Covid-19 vaccination pace, administers over 1 million doses in a day

Pakistan has picked up its vaccination pace amid the fourth wave of Covid-19, administering on August 3 over 1 million doses and surpassing its highest tally for jabs in a single day.

On August 3, the country administered 1,072,342 doses of the coronavirus vaccine, setting another record for the daily number.

"Happy to report that the target we had set for 1 million vaccinations in a day was crossed yesterday with 10 lakh 72 thousand vaccinations," Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar announced in a tweet on Tuesday.

He further said that all federating entities contributed with Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad all doing record numbers.

"Amazing performance by all involved," Umar tweeted.

The minister shared that Islamabad has become the first city in Pakistan with a population of 1 million or more to get 50% of its eligible population vaccinated with at least one dose.

"Peshawar and Pindi 35%, Faislabad 28%, Lahore/Gujranwala /Sialkot/Sargodha 27%, Karachi 26%, Hyderabad 25%," Umar shared.

Since Pakistan started its immunisation drive, it has administered a total of 31,929,581 doses of the Covid-19 vaccines.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan also took to Twitter and shared that Pakistan has crossed 30 million (cumulative) doses.

"Last 10 million doses took 16 days - ~8x faster than what it took to administer first 10 million," he tweeted.

He urged everyone to get vaccinated, saying that the jab remains a crucial tool in Pakistan's effort to tackle the fourth Covid-19 wave.

The government plans to inoculate 40 percent of the population in big cities by the end of August and 70 million by the end of this year. It has also committed to spending $1.1 billion on procuring the Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate its people. Pakistan has been inoculating the citizens with CanSino, Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Pakistan picks up vaccination pace, administers highest number of Covid-19 doses in a day

Meanwhile, as Karachi struggles to combat the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, the Sindh government has decided that citizens who do not possess Computerised National Identity Cards (CNIC) can receive Covid-19 vaccines.

These citizens will have to get their biometrics done at the vaccination centre and register the cell phone number they are using.

Sindh vaccinates 211,911 people in 24 hours: Murtaza Wahab

Citizens can get their vaccination done from Ojha campus of DOW University, Khaliq Dina Hall, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Children Hospital Karachi, New Karachi hospital, Qatar Hospital, Murad Memon Goth hospital, a government hospital in Korangi block 5 and Lyari college as well as Expo Centre and Khaliqdina Hall.

Covid-19: Pakistan's daily-cases tally falls below 4,000 after over a week

Meanwhile, after reporting more than 4,000 daily coronavirus cases for over a week, Pakistan has seen a slight decrease after 3,582 people tested positive during the last 24 hours on Tuesday.

On July 26, the country reported 3,262 new cases, however, since then it has continued to witness a surge with the daily tally going over 5,000.

However, during the last 24 hours, Pakistan saw a slight decrease in the tally with the positivity ratio also coming down. During the last 24 hours, 49,798 tests were conducted across the country, with the positivity rate being recorded at 7.19%.