Vaccine drive for citizens aged 30, above to commence from May 16

National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar announced on Wednesday that registration for Covid-19 vaccinations for citizens aged 30 years and above will begin on May 16.

"As vaccine supply continues to improve and vaccination capacity gets enhanced in all federating units, we continue to expand the categories of those who are eligible to get vaccinated," Umar said in a Twitter post this morning.

"Starting Sunday, the 16th of May, registration will be open to all 30 years and older citizens," he added.

A day before, on May 11,, Umar said that the government was making "concerted efforts" to increase the supply of vaccines as well as expand the country's vaccination capacity.

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He added that the government was opening vaccinations based on age in descending order "due to finite availability of vaccines globally, as well as vaccination capacity in the country".

Furthermore, the NCOC chief explained the government's rationale behind carrying out vaccinations in phases. Umar stated that only 7% of Pakistan's population was above the age of 60 whereas 53% of all Covid deaths had been in this age bracket.

"Conversely, 77% of Pakistan population is below the age of 40 and only 9% of total covid deaths in Pakistan have been in this age bracket," he added.

The NCOC chief said that the, "Mortality percentage which has been less than 1% for people under 40, rises to 1.8% for 41-50, 3.8% for 51-60, 7.2% for 61-70, 11.1% for 71-80 and over 15% for those above 80."

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Therefore, the federal minister maintained that it was important to inoculate the vulnerable segment of the population first.

"The risk of mortality due to covid rises sharply with age. In Pakistan the case fatality rate based on cumulative data this strong linkage in our country also."

On May 5, Umar had informed that the total number of single-day Covid-19 vaccinations had exceeded 200,000.