Pakistan kicks off second phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive

Announcement by the Ministry of National Health Services, Pakistan (Twitter)

By Nasir Aijaz
The AsiaN Representative

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has kicked off the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive focusing the people over the age of 60.

According to an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, the most senior citizens who have registered for vaccination will receive an SMS with instructions on their mobile phones and the oldest persons will be vaccinated first.

“The senior-most citizens will be the first ones to receive the doses of COVID-19 vaccine,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan said on Tuesday.

The health department started the registration of people over the age of 60 for the immunization program from February 15. They had asked citizens to send a text message at 1166 or enter their details at the national immunization management system (NIMS) website.

Once registered, the eligible citizens will be informed about the vaccine center and the date of vaccination through a text message, the officials said.

The government had launched the COVID-19 vaccine drive in early February beginning with the healthcare workers in the first phase after receiving 500,000 Sinopharm doses from China.

At least 25% of the 400,000 registered doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff had been vaccinated.

The official said under the GAVI-COVAX program for countries, Pakistan was also likely to receive 17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of June.

Seven million doses would be available in the first quarter and 10 million doses in the second quarter.

He added Pakistan was also in touch with other countries to get 73 million doses of the vaccine, which were likely to receive in the last quarter.

The official data released on March 09, 2021 says in Pakistan, some 595,000 COVID-19 cases were reported so far. of which 565.000 patients recovered. The COVID-29-related total deaths are 13,324.

According to province-wise data, 260,000 cases were reported in Sindh, of whom 252, 000 patients have recovered. Some 4,442 patients died over the year.

In Punjab, the number of COVID-19 cases and recovered patients is 180, 000 and 167, 000 respectively while 5629 patients could not survive.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province, 74.433 people suffered the Coronavirus of whom 69.849 recovered and 2122 died. Islamabad Capital Territory had 46229 patients of whom 43244 recovered and 512 died. The Balochistan province had the lowest number of patients – 19.141, of whom 18.842 recovered and only 202 patients died.

Official data revealed that 1,664 patients are still in serious condition however the decline in intensity of COVID-19 has been recorded on daily basis.

In view of declining cases, the government has relaxed the restrictions on commercial activities and opened the marriage halls and the educational institutions with condition of strictly observing the SOPs.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had organized a series of cricket matches in National Stadium Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, from mid-February which was to continue till March 20 however PCB had to cancel it in first week of March after certain COVID-19 cases were detected reportedly among the players as well as spectators. срочный займ 15000 на карту