Registration of health workers for Covid vaccine begins

Planning Minister Asad Umar urges precaution against third wave

ISLAMABAD:

Covid-19 vaccination registration for frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) of both public and private health facilities started on Tuesday following the beginning of the vaccine purchase process, an official of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.

The announcement comes a day after Planning Minister Asad Umar revealed a declining second wave of coronavirus in the country, as the country reported less than 50 daily fatalities this week, while the number of new cases remained below 2,500.

Umar, who heads the NCOC – the government’s unified effort against the pandemic – however, told reporters on Tuesday that several countries had seen a third wave of Covid-19 and urged the masses to continue following the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The vaccine registration process was started in provincial health systems of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the resource management system of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the official said.

“In the initial stage, only frontline health workers would be eligible for Covid-19 vaccine,” the official told APP. He asked them to visit NCOC's website for the registration and stressed that only registered persons would be entitled for this vaccine.

The announcement came as the NCOC reported that the national tally of active Covid-19 cases reached 34,007 on Tuesday, as 2,408 more people tested positive for coronavirus while 3,606 people recovered from it during the last 24 hours.

In its latest update the NCOC also said 41 Covid-19 patients out of which 36 were under treatment in hospitals, including 27 on ventilators, and five others at their homes or in quarantines, lost their lives on Monday. During the last 24 hours most of the deaths had occurred in the Punjab followed by Sindh.

Some 40,088 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 14,137 in Sindh, 14,499 in Punjab, 5,001 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), 5,277 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 574 in Balochistan, 367 in Gilgit Baltistan (G-B), and 233 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 506,701 cases were detected that also included 10,717 fatalities. Around 461,977 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant recovery ratio of 86%.

The NCOC said that a total of 7,162,626 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 630 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities. Some 2,843 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.

(With input from APP)