Pakistan crosses 80 million Covid vaccination mark

Pakistan has achieved another milestone of administering more than 80 million Covid-19 doses. According to official statistics as of Sept 29, over 50 million people have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine.

The number of fully vaccinated individuals has surpassed 20.7 million mark.

National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar announced earlier in the day that cities with a slow pace of vaccination as well as unvaccinated individuals will be imposed with higher restrictions.

He said in a tweet, “The only way out of the Covid pandemic is to get a high percentage of citizens vaccinated."

The NCOC chief added, “Therefore as part of the strategy to reward citizens and cities which vaccinate, there will be higher restrictions on cities with a low level of vaccination and on citizens who are not vaccinated.”

Also read: Cities with low vaccination rate to have higher restrictions: Umar

“We have set the target of vaccinating at least 70 million people in the country by December 01, 2021 and we are moving fast to achieving the target,” said Umar later in a press conference along with PM’s aide on Health Dr Faisal Sultan in Islamabad.

Dr Faisal said before vaccine availability main focus was on restrictions, while “now we are gradually shifting our strategic focus towards vaccination”.

He said children are super-spreaders of the virus that’s why it had been decided to open vaccination for children above 12 years of age.

Meanwhile, 52 more deaths were reported due to Covid-19 and at least 1,560 people contracted the virus in the country over the last 24 hours.

According to the NCOC statistics, 48,836 tests were conducted yesterday and the positivity ratio remained 3.9 per cent.