Vaccination obligatory regime from Oct 01: Provinces, AJK, G-B asked to ensure strict implementation

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), on Wednesday, asked the provinces including the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) to ensure strict implementation of vaccination obligatory regime from October 01.

The NCOC session chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar took detailed stock of epidemic curve chart data, implementation of obligatory regime, vaccination rates in the federating units, and activation of district vaccination committees.

The provincial chief secretaries participated in the session via video link and briefed the forum on their vaccination drive and preparations to mobilise district vaccination committees.

The NCOC has decided to not allow the people without coronavirus vaccination to travel by air locally and internationally from October first.

Moreover, people without Covid-19 vaccination will not be allowed to attend wedding ceremonies and their entry in shopping malls will also be banned.

Restriction will be placed on dining in, dinning out as well as they could not book hotels or guest houses.

Meanwhile, Pakistan, on Wednesday, detected 2,333 fresh Covid-19 cases by carrying out 51,139 tests across the country, which reflected a positivity ratio of 4.56 percent up from 4.1 percent recorded the other day.

The NCOC also reported 47 fresh coronavirus deaths in the country during the past 24 hours taking the nationwide death tally to 27,374 since the pandemic outbreak.

According the NCOC, over the past 24 hours 3,261 coronavirus patients have recovered taking the nationwide recovery tally to 1,140,917, which is over 90 percent of the total cases.

The national tally of total Covid-19 active cases was recorded at 61,947.

There were 4,641 Covid-infected patients under treatment in critical condition with six more patients admitted in the past 24 hours to various Covid dedicated healthcare facilities of the country.

Out of a total 1,230,238 cases detected in the country also including the deaths, recovered and under treatment, Sindh is top with 452,267 cases, followed by Punjab with 424,701 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) 171,874 cases, Islamabad Capital territory (ICT) 104,472 cases, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 33,864 cases, Balochistan 32,796 cases, and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) 10,264 cases.

Out of 27,374 nationwide coronavirus deaths, Punjab with 12,470 deaths is on top, followed by Sindh with 7,295 deaths, KPK 5,444 deaths, ICT 905 deaths, AJK 733 deaths, Balochistan 345 deaths, and G-B 182 deaths.

A total of 18,950,039 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 640 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities across the country.

Pakistan has received two new consignments of 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, which include three million Sinovac and seven million Sinopharm vaccine doses, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

They have been purchased by the Pakistan government, the Health Ministry officials said, adding that the vaccines were imported by the NDMA and handed over to the Ministry of Health.

The vaccines will be supplied to the provinces as per their need, officials of the Ministry of Health said.

“All Covid-19 vaccines, including Sinopharm and Sinovac, are now available for the second dose,” the Health Ministry posted on Twitter, on Wednesday.

Pakistan has administered at least 74,837,117 doses of Covid vaccines so far.

Assuming every person needs two doses, that is enough to have vaccinated about 17.3 percent of the country’s population.

During the last week, Pakistan averaged about 784,687 doses administered each day. At that rate, it will take a further 56 days to administer enough doses for another 10 percent of the population.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021