President Alvi seeks ulema's help to get people vaccinated

Religious scholars should ask people to get themselves vaccinated during Friday prayers' sermons, President Alvi said Wednesday, as the government aspires to hit the 70-million inoculations mark by the end of 2021.  

The president, addressing a meeting with religious scholars in attendance, said health experts were repeatedly urging the masses to get vaccinated to control the pandemic.

The president said ulema have also expressed satisfaction over the vaccines being inoculated in the country. Moreover, he added the government had no plans on making dictated sermons mandatory.

Pakistan has so far vaccinated nearly eight million people, with 305,093 people being inoculated on June 1, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.

With 1,843 new infections, Pakistan on Wednesday reported less than 2,000 coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day, pushing the national tally to 924,667 countrywide.

The positivity ratio across the country stands at 3.9%. Pakistan has now reported a positivity ratio below 5% for the ninth consecutive day as the country treads towards recovery.

According to official data provided by the NCOC, about 47,183 tests were conducted during the past 24 hours out of which 1,843 returned positive.

At least 80 people lost the battle to coronavirus during the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 20,930 across the country. The country's single-day COVID-19 daily death toll remains below 100 for the 12th consecutive day today.

The number of active cases stands at 55,052 whereas about 848,685 people have recovered from the virus so far.