ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development and head of the National Command and Operation Centre Asad Umar on Sunday said Pakistan set a new record of most daily vaccinations after inoculating about 400,000 people on Saturday.
In a tweet, Asad said that over 383,000 people received protective jabs in the last 24 hours, setting a new record.
الحمدللہ کل ایک دن میں ویکسینیشن کا نیا ریکارڈ قائم کیا گیا. کل 3 لاکھ 83 ہزار سے زائد ویکسینیشن کی گئ. اب تک 70 لاکھ سے ویکسین لگائ جا چکی ہے. رجسٹر کرنے والوں کی تعداد میں بھی مسلسل اضافہ ہو رہا ہے اور ا کروڑ 16 لاکھ 63 ہزار افراد رجسٹر ہو چکے ہیں
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 30, 2021
“So far, seven million people have been vaccinated in the country,” he said while revealing that number of people getting registered for the vaccination is also increasing day by day.
He said that so far 11.6 million people have registered signed up for the drive.
An increase in the number of people receiving doses has been witnessed after the NCOC decided to allow walk-in vaccination of people above 30 years of age from Saturday.
“In the NCOC meeting today it was decided to open up walk-in vaccination for 30 plus from tomorrow,” Asad tweeted.
“So if you are 30 or older and registered please go to any vaccination centre and get vaccinated,” he urged.
The government has also started registering people aged 19 and above for vaccination. People in the said age bracket can register themselves by sending their identity number to 1166.
The NCOC decided to open vaccine registration for all people having Computerised National Identity Cards.
NEW INFECTIONS REDUCING IN PUNJAB:
Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, citing lower positivity rates and bed occupancy, announced the coronavirus situation in the province was improving.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said that over the last week, the recoveries significantly increased.
“People being admitted to hospitals [are fewer] than the number of patients being discharged. The graph is slowly coming down from the plateau,” she said.
Only three districts in the province — Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Khanewal — now had a positivity rate higher than five percent, she said. While the positivity rate in Lahore had reduced to 1.5 percent.
Giving details about the occupancy rates of beds and ventilators, the minister said 2,897 beds were allocated for coronavirus patients in primary care hospitals of which 410 were currently occupied while only nine ventilators out of a total of 112 were in use.
The highest occupancy rate of ventilated beds was in Multan with 67 percent, followed by Lahore at 38 percent, Bahawalpur at 32 percent and Rawalpindi at 16 percent
“The bed occupancy rate has significantly reduced in other districts. The bed occupancy rate in Gujranwala, where we saw a lot of [problems] last month, is 20 percent.”
Rashid said the Punjab government was reopening swimming pools while tourism has also been reopened subject to guidelines. The NCOC would take a decision on reopening cinemas and theatres next week, she announced.
She urged people to continue following the health guidelines, saying the government would be able to “control the pandemic” within the next three to four months if people did two things: properly maintained guidelines and got vaccinated.
The minister also stressed that the government had adequate stocks of vaccine doses.
“The vaccines available to the government are Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca and CanSino. People oftentimes come to us and say we want a [particular] vaccine. The vaccine of only one kind will be administered at a time,” she said.
“Right now, the administration of SinoVac has started at all our centres. Previously, AstraZeneca was being administered.”
“Only a second dose of Sinopharm is being administered,” she said, adding that the government has 1.4 million vaccines in stock.
