ISLAMABAD: The government has opened Covid-19 vaccine registration for citizens 30 year and above on Sunday. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) registration of citizens from 30 to 39 years of age has been started from 16th of May, 2021 and vaccination centre and date will be communicated to them through SMS, once the vaccine administration will start for their age group.

Citizens 40 years plus could register themselves and just walk-in to the nearest centre for vaccination. Registered HCWs - vaccination centre and date will be communicated through SMS to registered HCWs as per schedule. Meanwhile during the last twenty four hours 76 more people have died due to Covid-19 and 2379 new positive cases have been reported in the country. According to official statistics, 30,402 tests were conducted. Total death toll from the pandemic has reached 19,543.

According to the data Punjab has 3,25,662 cases of Covid-19, followed by Sindh 2,98,078, 1,26787 in KP, 79,123 in Islamabad, 23,831 in Balochistan, 18,231 in AJK, and 5,418 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

There are 1860 active cases in AJK, 1169 in Balochistan, 95 cases in GB, 8835 in Islamabad, 8238 in KP, 30,927 in Punjab and 17,695 in Sindh. According to media reports, another flight of Pakistan International Airlines carrying one million doses of Sinovac vaccine from the Beijing has arrived in Islamabad. More flights of the national carrier are expected to airlift more consignments of Covid-19 vaccines procured from China by the end of this month. Pakistan said to have so far received over 11 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

INP adds: inter-provincial, intercity and intra city transport with 50 percent passenger occupancy has resumed in the country after hiatus of about a week.

According to details, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has also allowed railways to maintain its operation with 70 percent occupancy.

Regarding business hours, NCOC allowed markets and shops to remain open till 8:00 PM from 17 May (Monday) onwards. It also allowed normal working hours for offices from 17 May onwards whereas the condition of 50 percent work from home would remain enforced.

On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 76 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 877,130. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 19,543 on Sunday.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021