Pakistan to start inoculating people aged 40-49 against COVID-19

ISLAMABAD, April 29 (Xinhua):  Chairman of Pakistan’s National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) Asad Umar said on Thursday that starting from May 3, the vaccination against COVID-19 will be open to people aged between 40 and 49 in the Asian country.

While expressing satisfaction at the pace of registration for vaccination, Umar said on Twitter that Thursday marked the second successive day with more than 100,000 vaccinations in the country.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan opened the registration for COVID-19 vaccination for the 40-49 age group and also allowed walk-in vaccination of all registered citizens in the 50-plus age group.

The country started its COVID-19 vaccination drive in February after the arrival of China-gifted vaccine doses, with the frontline health workers and elderly people given the priority for inoculation.

Other than vaccine doses gifted by China, Pakistan has purchased 3 million vaccine doses from several companies, whereas orders for another 30 million doses have already been placed to speed up the vaccination process in the country, according to Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Faisal Sultan.

Pakistan has been struggling to curb the deadly third wave of COVID-19 and the government has been making all-out efforts to ensure the standard operating procedures to be followed by the public.

Besides restrictions already in place, the country has recently taken fresh measures including closing schools in cities with over 5 per cent coronavirus positivity rate, banning indoor and outdoor dining, and reducing market opening and office hours.

According to the officials, the number of critical cases in the country has been on the rise recently and the country’s healthcare system has remained under immense pressure, with hospitals facing a shortage of beds and medical oxygen.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that the government is considering importing medical oxygen from China and Iran were given a shortage due to a growing number of coronavirus cases.

According to the NCOC, a total of 815,711 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Pakistan so far, with 708,193 recoveries and 17,680 deaths.