Pak to expedite anti-Covid campaign; to inoculate 70 mn people by year end

Pakistan on Wednesday announced to expedite its nationwide anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign and inoculate 70 million people in the country by the year end.

Chairing a meeting of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) here, Planning Minister Asad Umar said there was a need to expedite the campaign since the number of cases of COVID-19 continued to surge.

The mass vaccination drive strategy revolves around three cardinals including motivation of the public through effective media partnership, capacity building of existing vaccination infrastructure and uninterrupted supply of vaccine, he said.

The availability of vaccines was made easy by the start of indigenous production which commenced on June 1 with the launching of PakVac by the National Institute of Health.

A target to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of this year has been set by NCOC, it said.

The decisions were made as the positivity rate for the second consecutive day remained below 4 per cent as 1,843 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally of confirmed cases to 924,667, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.

At least 80 patients died in the same period and the number of COVID-19 deaths reached 20,930.