20m citizens vaccinated: Faisal

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan on Wednesday said that the government is making sincere efforts to ensure the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine at all vaccination centres and more doses are expected to arrive soon, reported Geo News.

In a media briefing, Dr Sultan said that so far 20 million citizens have been vaccinated as the government secured sufficient doses in the month of June to ramp up the vaccination drive in the country. He dismissed talk of vaccines having run out in Pakistan as "heresay" and said that shortages were a "global phenomenon".

He said that the vaccine situation in the country would improve after June 20 when more vaccines would reach Pakistan. It is not clear which vaccines will be arriving at that time. He said that the government was in contact with local and provincial administrations to make up the shortfall. “We are carrying out load balancing and redistribution locally to manage the situation across the country.”

Dr Faisal said: “We have two million doses available and vaccinations will continue to protect our citizens from carrying the coronavirus.” The premier's aide on health said that there was no harm if the second dose of vaccine was delayed by six to eight weeks instead of a routine three to four-week duration in between jabs.

He advised citizens to strictly follow COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in offices and markets to prevent the disease. “COVID-19 is a deadly virus but we can control it just as we controlled it by following the SOPs during the first and second waves.”

Meanwhile, the national tally on Wednesday of total active COVID-19 cases was recorded 39,905 with 1,038 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 2,016 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours. National COVID positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 2.46 percent.

Forty-six corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 45 of whom were under treatment in the hospitals and one out of the hospitals had perished in their respective quarantines or homes, according to the latest update issued by the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC). During the past 24 hours, most of the deaths have occurred in the Punjab followed by Sindh.

Out of the total 46 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours 20 of them had died who were under treatment on ventilators. There were 2,490 Covid infected patients under treatment in critical care in various Covid dedicated healthcare facilities in past 24 hours.

National Covid positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 2.46 percent.

Some 42,113 tests were conducted across the country on Tuesday, including 13,992 in Sindh, 13,427 in Punjab, 8,519 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,170 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,188 in Balochistan, 325 in GB, and 492 in AJK.

Around 882,332 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.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 944,065 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 19,822, Balochistan 26,331, GB 5,734, ICT 82,207, KP 136,313, Punjab 344,379 and Sindh 329,279. About 21,828 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 5,273 have perished in Sindh among 17 of them died in hospitals on Tuesday.

10,567 in Punjab had died with 19 deaths occurred in past 24 hours. 18 of them died in the hospitals and one out of the hospitals.

4,240 in KP where six of them died in hospitals on Tuesday, 773 in ICT, 297 in Balochistan among three of them died in the hospitals on Tuesday, 108 in GB and 570 in AJK among one of them succumbed to the deadly virus in hospital on Tuesday.

A total of 13,934,493 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 2,749 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.