As many as 100 million people have been “fully vaccinated” against the coronavirus in Pakistan, a “major milestone” achieved by the country in its effort to get rid of the virus and return to normalcy.
According to National Command and Operation Centre head Asad Umar’s tweet on Sunday, more than 127 million have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccines. “We are very close to achieving vaccination of all eligible citizens,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention that the countrywide door-to-door vaccination campaign, which started on February 1, had also contributed to the latest milestone to some extent as the country witnessed an increase in the number of vaccinated people after the drive. It was the first phase of the “massive” two-week-long countrywide vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 35 million people.
“As many as 55,000 mobile teams will take part in this campaign that will be conducted across the country. We have trained them and arranged vaccines for them,” NCOC head Asad Umar had said during a press conference on February 1. He was addressing the presser with Special Assistant to the PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan in Islamabad.
The vaccination milestone development has achieved at the time when the country’s Covid graph was showing decreasing trend of the virus. The daily coronavirus statistics have shown that the impact of the virus has dampened over the last 10 days, prompting the NCOC to ease Covid-induced restrictions, including those imposed at number of spectators in cricket stadiums during the Pakistan Super League and Pakistan vs Australia series.
A similar trend was witnessed in the data shared by the NCOC on Sunday.
“Statistics 6 Mar 22: total tests in last 24 hours: 37,661; positive cases: 755; positivity %: 2.0%; deaths: 7; patients on critical care: 821,” it said in a tweet.
The NCOC forum, which serves as the nerve centre of the country’s unified efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, also shared the countrywide tally. According to the data, Sindh topped the list with maximum cases, 569,978, followed by Punjab (502,621), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (216,983), Islamabad (134,620), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (43,106), Balochistan (35,380), and Gilgit Baltistan (11,570).
Furthermore, the active cases also stayed below 30,000.
Amid the weakening signs of the fifth wave of coronavirus, the NCOC on March 1 allowed full occupancy at stadiums for the Pakistan-Australia cricket series that will be held in three cities of the country from March 4 to April 5.
In a statement issued by the NCOC, the Covid-19 monitoring body allowed people aged 12 and above who are vaccinated to attend matches. Moreover, children below 12 years of age who are not vaccinated are also allowed to watch matches in the stadiums, it added.
Earlier, the NCOC on February 23 abolished the pre-boarding negative PCR test for fully vaccinated inbound travellers as it revised the Covid-related policy for passengers travelling to Pakistan,
The inbound policy, which came into effect on February 24, stated that vaccination was mandatory for all adult inbound passengers. Travellers below 12 years of age were exempt from mandatory vaccination. Passengers travelling to Pakistan between 12 to18 years of age were allowed to travel without mandatory vaccination till March 31.
Only non-vaccinated individuals over 12 years of age would be required to submit a negative PCR test conducted 72 hours prior to their travel.
A rapid antigen test for coronavirus would be conducted on arrival at border terminals and those who test positive for Covid would be asked to quarantine at home for 10 days.
