ISLAMABAD: National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Chairman Asad Umar Tuesday announced starting coronavirus vaccination in the federal capital while in the provinces it will start today (Wednesday).
Asad Umar, who is also federal minister for planning and development, took to social media site Twitter to make this announcement, saying that the coronavirus vaccination campaign in all the provincial capitals would start from today (Wednesday).
Umar added that the front line health workers would receive the doses of vaccine on priority.
The country is set to embark on a massive inoculation drive against the coronavirus this week, as the first consignment of the 500,000 doses produced by China’s Sinopharm reached the federal capital on Monday.
Besides the Chinese jabs, Pakistan has also been pledged 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine under a global scheme to deliver treatment to the developing nations.
About six million doses will arrive by March end under the COVAX scheme, with the remainder due by mid-year.
According to the NCOC Covid-19-related data issued here Tuesday, Pakistan has reported 63 deaths over the past 24 hours and 1,220 fresh coronavirus cases which is the lowest number of coronavirus cases of the past three months.
Countrywide 38,813 tests were conducted of which 1,220 tested positive for the Covid-19 which is 3.1 percent of the tests.
After recording of 63 fresh coronavirus deaths, the national tally for Covid-19 deaths reached 11,746 and with addition of 1,220 new Covid-19 cases, Pakistan’s tally for Covid-19 cases reached 547,648, since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The authorities over the past 24 hours also reported 1,285 coronavirus patient recoveries which took the total active Covid-19 cases to 33,365.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in February 2020, so far Pakistan has reported 502,537 people recovered from the deadly virus.
Out of 63 coronavirus patients who lost their lives during the past 24 hours, 53 were under treatment in hospitals, and 10 at their homes or quarantines.
Punjab and Sindh reported most deaths as 46 coronavirus patents died in Punjab and eight in Sindh.
Of 63 corona deaths reported during past 24 hours, 34 died on ventilators.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 45 percent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 35 percent, Peshawar 28 percent, and Lahore 35 percent.
The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of Covid patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Peshawar 42 percent, Multan 33 percent, Karachi 33 percent, and Rawalpindi 22 percent.
Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 547,648 cases were detected in Pakistan.
Sindh with 247,727 cases is on top followed by Punjab with 158,220 cases, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) with 67,419 cases, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) with 41,493 cases, Balochistan with 18,830 cases, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with 9,050 cases, and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) with 4,909 cases.
Out of 11,746 coronavirus deaths since the outbreak of Covid-19, Punjab with 4,793 deaths is on top followed by Sindh 4,004, KPK 1,912 deaths, ICT with 475 deaths, AJK with 264 deaths, Balochistan with 196 deaths, and G-B with 102 deaths.
A total of 8,005,794 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities.
Some 2,508 corona patients are admitted in hospitals across the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021