(Karachi) At least 39 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported during the past 24 hours across the country, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) reported on Sunday. The overall death toll to 13,205.

As per the NCOC, the deadly disease has claimed 39 more lives with 1,780 new infections. The total number of active cases has reached 17,352 and the positivity rate stands at 4.57 percent.

It stated that in the past 24 hours, as many as 1,038 patients have recovered from the virus while 1,595 patients are in critical condition.

The nationwide tally of cases now currently stands at 590,508.

Earlier, National Health Service (NHS) Secretary Amir Ashraf Khawaja said that the government aims to tackle the Covid-19 health challenge through herd immunity and donated vaccines as it has no plan to buy vaccines at least during the current year.

The NHS secretary informed the Public Accounts Committee that Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm had committed to providing one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, saying that 0.5m doses had been handed over to Pakistan, out of which around 275,000 doses had been administered to health professionals dealing with Covid-19 patients.

He said the second phase would cover the health officials working in other hospitals and health facilities, adding that the people aged 65 years and above could also register themselves for vaccination by sending a text message to 1166.

He said Pakistan had planned to vaccinate 70 million people this year.