Senior citizens’ vaccination starts today as 54 more die of Covid-19

The country will begin the second phase of a nationwide coronavirus vaccination drive from Wednesday (today) to inoculate all above 60, health officials said.
The most senior citizens will be the first ones to receive the doses of Covid-19 vaccine, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said.
The “vaccinations will be done in reverse order by age which means the oldest person who has registered will be vaccinated first” according to Planning Minister Asad Umar, who is spearheading the country’s fight against the pandemic.
The health department started registration of those 60 years and above for the immunisation programme from February 15 asking the citizens to send a text message at 1166 or enter their details at the national immunisation management system (NIMS) website. Once registered, the eligible citizens will be informed about the vaccine centre and the date of vaccination through a text message, officials said.
On the other hand, 54 more people died of C0vid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 13,281, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday. The NCOC said that 1,353 fresh infections were reported during the aforesaid period, jacking up the national tally of cases to 593,453.
The total count of active cases is 16,349 and 1,644 of them were stated to be in critical condition. The positivity rate stands at 4.25 per cent. A total of 31,786 tests were conducted across the country on Monday while so far 9,278,613 samples have been tested.
In the past 24 hours, as many as 3,365 patients have recovered from the virus while so far 563,823 people have recovered from the deadly disease.
At least 825 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Punjab during the past 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 178,648. According to the Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Care Department, at least 35 more patients succumbed to the pandemic as the total reached 5,600. The department added that at least 166,503 patients had recovered from the deadly virus as yet.
The provincial tally for confirmed coronavirus cases in Sindh reached 260,149 after 194 new cases were recorded during the past 24 hours. Around six more fatalities were also recorded, taking the death toll to 4,442, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said in a statement on Tuesday. As many as 137 people were also said to have recovered from the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 251,531.