The National Command and Operation Centre on Tuesday decided to start Covid-19 vaccination of children aged 12 years and above, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar announced.
Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, on his official Twitter account said:”In today’s NCOC meeting decided to start vaccination of all 12 years and older. Special drive will be run for vaccination at schools to make it easier for children to be vaccinated”.
NCOC will launch a special drive for vaccination at schools. In order to make it easier for students to get vaccinated against the viral disease, he added.
On Sept 11, the government lowered Covid vaccination age to 15 years in the country. Subsequently, the vaccination drive for children between 15 to 18 years began from September 13.
The administration also decided to inoculate them with the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
The federal government had earlier disclosed its plan to begin COVID vaccination for people aged below 18 in the country.
“In the first phase, vaccination is available for people in the age bracket of 15 and 18. While in the second phase, people aged between 12 and 15 will be inoculated,” sources said. Adding that we have also consulted NADRA on how the process could be facilitated.
The national tally of total active Covid-19 cases recorded 49, 968 with 1,400 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during the last 24 hours.
According to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre on Tuesday, 41 patients died during the past 24 hours, 38 of whom were under treatment in hospital and three out of the hospital in their respective quarantines or homes.
During the last 24 hours, most of the deaths had occurred in Sindh followed by Punjab.
Out of the total 41 deaths that occurred during the last 24 hours,15 of the deceased had died on ventilators during their treatment.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 86 percent, Sargodha 48 percent, Bahawalpur 40 percent and Lahore 48 percent.
The maximum Oxygen beds was also occupied in four major areas of Sargodha 48 percent, Faisalabad 46 percent, Swabi 52 percent and Peshawar 44 percent.
Around 469 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on a ventilator in Gilgit Baltistan and Balochistan and AJK.
Some 44,116 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 13,625 in Sindh, 14,244 in Punjab, 9,645 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,929 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,307 in Balochistan, 450 in GB, and 916 in AJK.
Around 1,164,219 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count.
Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 1,241,825 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 34,074 Balochistan 32,875, GB 10,308, ICT 10,5217, KP 173, 353, Punjab 429,655 and Sindh 456,343.
About 27,638 deaths were recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 7,361 have perished in Sindh, out of which 11 died in hospital on Monday.
12,575 in Punjab out of which 13 deaths occurred in hospital while 03 died out of hospital during past 24 hours.
5,514 in KP where 07 of them died in hospital on Monday, 919 in ICT among three deaths in hospital during past 24 hours, 348 in Balochistan out of which 02 died in hospital on Monday, 184 in GB and 737 in AJK out of 02 succumbed to the deadly virus in hospital on Monday.
A total of 19,284,635 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 640 hospitals are equipped with Covid facilities. Some 4,219 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.
