COVID-19: Pakistan to inoculate 70 million people in 2021

Islamabad: Pakistan is opening registration of people aged 19 and above from Thursday for COVID-19 vaccination.

A day earlier the country had announced to prepare locally its own vaccine ‘PakVac’ with the help of Chinese company CanSinoBio.

The registration will be open now for the entire national population eligible to get the shot, said Asad Umar, chairman of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in a tweet.

The decision was made at an NCOC meeting earlier in the day, he announced.

“In today’s NCOC meeting we decided to open up vaccination registration for all 19 years and above. This registration will start from tomorrow. So now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for COVID-19 vaccination,” said Asad Umar in his tweet on Wednesday.

On May 12, Pakistan opened registration for people aged 30 and above. In a tweet at that time, Asad Umar had explained that the government was opening up registrations for more age groups as Pakistan’s vaccine supply continues to improve and the country’s vaccination capacity gets better every day.

The government plans to inoculate 70 million people–around 70% of the vaccine-eligible adult population–by the end of 2021.

So far, all the COVID-19 vaccines available in Pakistan have been approved for people of 18 years and above.

Three Chinese, one UK and one Pakistani vaccine available

Currently, Pakistanis are being administered shots from one of three Chinese vaccines — Sinopharm, Sinovac and Cansino — or the UK-made AstraZeneca vaccine which is approved only for those above 40 years.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s own ‘PakVac’ will also be available (3 million doses in one month) after clearance by the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP) from next week.

It is the first-ever COVID-19 vaccine developed in Pakistan. The single-dose shot was made at the National Institute of Health (NIH) with the help of China’s CanSino Biologics.

Positivity remains below 5 per cent

Pakistan on Wednesday recorded 65 deaths and 2,724 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours with a 4.5 per cent positivity rate that is still below 5 per cent.

According to the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC), 59,076 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours while the total number of cases in the country had surged to 908,576 and the death toll to 20,465. The active cases in the country had also reduced from 62,295 a day earlier to 60,268 on Wednesday, the NCOC statistics reveal.

In-bound travel advisory revised

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Tuesday revised the travel advisory regarding inbound travel to Pakistan which will be effective from May 26.

According to the CAA the travel restriction on inbound travel to Pakistan from Category C countries already conveyed in March 2021, will continue to remain effective until further order.

The international travellers from any country are required to possess valid negative PCR test certification conducted within 72 hours prior to commencement of travel to Pakistan.

The advisory for Iraq, which has recently been included in Category C countries, will become effective from June 5, it further said.

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