ISLAMABAD: A batch of 700,000 doses of Sinopharm’s anti-Covid vaccine reached Pakistan on Tuesday, with the second consignment of 600,000 doses scheduled to arrive later in the day.
According to health ministry officials, two million doses of Sinopharm will arrive in Pakistan in three batches.
Earlier, 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, donated to Pakistan by the US government, arrived earlier in July.
Statistics from the National Command and Operations Centre show that 4.5 million people have been vaccinated all over Pakistan, with 22.7 million doses of various vaccines administered.
Thirty-seven more deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic were reported during the last twenty-four hours in the country, said the National Command and Operation Centre on Tuesday.
According to the NCOC data, 2,145 new cases of coronavirus were reported during the aforementioned period. A total of 40,805 people were tested for the infection on Monday, said the NCOC, out of whom 2,145 turned out to be positive. This brings the positivity ratio across the country to 5.25 percent. Pakistan also reported 37 deaths from the infection over the last 24 hours.
With 37 more deaths, 22,848 people have so far succumbed to the virus. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country since the pandemic began has risen to 993,872, while the number of active cases in the country has increased to 49,929. As far as the recoveries are concerned, 921,095 people have recovered from the infection in total.
At least 382 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Punjab during the past 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 351,000. According to the Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Care Department, at least 11 more patients succumbed to the pandemic as the total death count reached 10,892.
The department added that at least 329,875 patients had recovered from the deadly virus as of yet, with 119 people recovered in the past 24 hours.
Last week, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had said the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha festival will be celebrated in a “limited, closed” environment, hinting at more restrictions to curb the virus spread amid fears of a fourth wave.
The minister was speaking about the spike in coronavirus cases and the measures being taken by the federal government.
He spoke about the new Delta variant of the coronavirus, saying that the mutations in each new variant of the virus make it very easy to “jump from one person to another. This variant is spreading at a pace of 50-60 percent.”
