Govt vaccinates 70m as Omicron cases rise

The government on Friday announced that it had achieved the target of fully vaccinating 70 million people by the end of 2021 as cases of the virus’ highly contagious Omicron variant continue to rise across the country.

“To achieve this, our federal government alone procured vaccines worth almost Rs250 billion and provided free vaccines to citizens in all the provinces,” Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote in a tweet.

The prime minister was grateful for the “tireless and coordinated” work carried out by the NCOC, the federal and provincial administrations as well as health teams to ensure the success of government's vaccination programme.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar also announced that 46% of Pakistan’s eligible population was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and 63% had received at least one jab.

Taking to Twitter, Umar, who also heads the NCOC, pointed out that Islamabad led the federating units with 77% of its population being fully vaccinated.

Read 75 cases of Omicron variant confirmed in Pakistan

The capital was followed by Punjab at 51%, Gilgit-Baltistan at 46%, Azad Jammu and Kashmir at 45%, Balochistan at 42%, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa at 41%, and Sindh at 37%.

He emphasised that “100% of [the] vaccine procurement” was carried out by the federal government, which provided free anti-Covid jabs to citizens across the country “regardless of which province they live in”.

He expressed his gratitude to the NCOC team, federal and provincial administrations and health teams for their hard work to help achieve the target "that people were considering impossible".

Separately, the Omicron variant has been confirmed in 11 members of the same family in Karachi. Sources in the Sindh Health Department said the family, which lived in in the East district of the city, included eight women and three men. The patients ranged in age from 26 to 77 years. The district health officer had recommended to the deputy commissioner to impose a smart lockdown in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 7 neighbourhood of the city.

In Islamabad, 15 members of the same family have been diagnosed with Omicron.

District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia said the 15 people were attending a wedding in Islamabad.

“The screening of other guests at the wedding is under way,” he added.

(With input from APP)