Total number of Covid vaccinations exceed 25m: Umar

Minister says authorities are accelerating process of inoculation

ISLAMABAD:

National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Chairman Asad Umar on Sunday said that the total number of administered Covid-19 vaccinations had so far exceeded 25 million.

In a tweet, the federal minister said that the total number of people to have been fully vaccinated had also crossed 20 million. He said the authorities now aim at accelerating the process of inoculation in the next month.

“By the end of August, all major cities’ target is to have at least 40% of the eligible population vaccinated,” Umar said.

Earlier on Saturday, Umar said that with 102, the rate of Covid-19 deaths per million in Pakistan remained the lowest in the region due to timely decisions of the government.

The minister observed that in Iran some 1,037 people died out of a one million population while in Nepal the number was 326, India 301, Sri Lanka 186, Afghanistan 160, and Bangladesh 113.

However, he warned that the risk was not over yet therefore, people should follow Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and also have themselves vaccinated against the disease.

Covid update
The national tally on Sunday of total active Covid-19 cases stood at 55,720 with 2,819 more people testing positive for the deadly virus and 1,176 people recovering from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Read Covid-19 positivity shoots up to 7.17%

45 patients succumbed to the deadly virus during the past 24 hours, 41 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and four of them died in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the NCOC.

Most of these deaths have been reported in Sindh followed by Punjab. Out of the total 45 fatalities, 22 were those on ventilators.

There were 2,573 Covid-19 infected patients under treatment in critical condition with 22 of them admitted during the past 24 hours in various Covid-19 dedicated healthcare facilities of the country.

The National Covid-19 positivity ratio during the past 24 hours was recorded at 6.32 percent.

The Covid-19 positivity ratio is the percentage of actual positive cases appearing in every 100 tests performed to identify infected individuals.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major cities including Islamabad (38%), Lahore (20%), Peshawar (15%), and Karachi (15%).

The maximum oxygen beds were also occupied in four major cities of Gilgit (50%), Karachi (46%), Rawalpindi (24%), and Muzaffarabad (28%).

Some 44,579 tests were conducted across the country on Saturday, including 16,156 in Sindh, 17,525 in Punjab, 6,117 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), 2,043 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 814 in Balochistan, 729 in GB, and 1,195 in AJK. Around 925,958 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

A total of 15,667,114 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities across the country. Some 2,944 corona patients were admitted to hospitals.