National Command and Operation Centre head Asad Umar on Saturday said that as many as 60 million are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, stressing the need for urgent vaccination with the arrival of the new Covid variant – Omicron.

In a tweet, Umar added that so far 87.5 million have received the first dose of the Covid vaccine.

Umar, who is also the planning minister, has been urging the people to get vaccinated “as soon as possible.”

Moreover, around 47,903 tests were conducted over the last 24 hours. In a tweet, the NCOC shared the statistics recorded on December 18.

Covid positivity ratio was recorded at 0.74%, seven deaths were reported and as many as 666 people were on critical care, it added.

The National Institutes of Health, Islamabad on December 13 confirmed the country’s first Omicron case through genome sequencing after the Sindh Health Department reported the case on December 9. The new variant was detected in a woman who was admitted at a private hospital in Karachi, it said, adding that the patient had arrived in Pakistan from abroad.

The government has stepped up Covid-19 vaccination efforts and expanded the criteria for vaccine booster shots.