PIA plane with 2m SinoVac jabs arrives

ISLAMABAD: A special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) airlifted two million doses of SinoVac COVID-19 vaccine from China that arrived at the Islamabad International Airport here on Wednesday.

The consignment received was part of the planned contracted quantity purchased from China, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) apprised in an update here issued. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was spearheading the purchase process of vaccines from the international market under the auspices of the NCOC, it added.

Moreover, these doses would be deployed to all vaccine centres across the country for which arrangements were already in place. It went on to mention that with the arrival of this consignment, daily average inoculation of the vaccine doses across the country would be enhanced considerably.

Meanwhile, the national tally on Wednesday of total active COVID-19 cases was 33,005 with 930 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,338 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Thirty-nine corona patients have died during the past 24 hours, all of whom were under treatment in the hospitals, 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 Sindh followed by the Punjab. Out of the total 39 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours 19 of them had died who were under treatment on ventilators.

There were 2,173 Covid infected patients under treatment in critical care among four of them admitted in various COVID dedicated healthcare facilities in past 24 hours.

The National COVID positivity ratio during past 24 hours was recorded 2.043 percent.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Islamabad 22 percent, Lahore 21 percent, Bahawalpur 26 percent and Multan 27 percent. The maximum Oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Swabi 35 percent, Gilgit 42 percent, Karachi 24 percent and Muzaffarabad 19 percent.

Some 45,519 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 13,243 in Sindh, 17,709 in Punjab, 8,482 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,378 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 920 in Balochistan, 305 in GB, and 482 in AJK.

Around 895,690 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 950,768 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far.

Around 5,358 have perished in Sindh among 14 of them who died in hospitals on Tuesday.

A total of 14,232,960 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 639 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 2,415 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.