ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reached another major milestone of fully vaccinating 100 million people against Covid-19.

The announcement of fully vaccinating 100m people was made by federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan through social media.

A major milestone has reached in the national vaccination drive, Mr Umar said in a message on Twitter, adding that 100m Pakistanis are now fully vaccinated. “More than 127 million have received at least one dose. We are very close to achieving vaccination of all eligible citizens,” he tweeted.

Similarly, Dr Sultan also announced the achievement in a Twitter message.

Minister says country is ‘very close’ to achieving vaccination of all eligible citizens

Meanwhile, 755 more people were infec­ted with the virus and seven Covid-19 patients died during the past 24 hours. The nati­onal positivity rate was two per cent, with 821 patients on critical care on Sunday.

Data shows that 216,932,641 doses of vaccine have been administered till date. As many as 127,532,069 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, of which 100,163,961 people have become fully vaccinated. Moreover, 4,646,807 people have been inoculated with booster shots.

According to a document available with Dawn, only one city of the country — Gilgit — showed over 10pc positivity rate where 21pc samples were found positive. Only two cities reported over 5pc, but less than 10pc positivity. They are Peshawar with 7.39pc and Karachi with 5.65pc positivity rate. A number of cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Abbot­tabad, Nowshera and Swat, reported less than 2pc positivity rate.

The data shows that 97pc of ventilators (1,579) in the country were vacant on Sunday. Moreover, 1,468 non-Covid vents were also available. Similarly, 93pc of oxygenated beds (7,015) were vacant.

While 30,265 people have succumbed to the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, 61pc of them were male and the age range of the deceased was from two months to over 100 years. As many as 78pc people were over the age of 50 years and 69pc of them had chronic comorbidity.

The data says 91pc of those who died due to the virus remained hospitalised and their average stay was 6.5 days ranging from one to 173 days. As many as 44pc of hospitalised patients remained on ventilators and their average stay was 3.2 days ranging from one to 42 days.

The data shows that 174 deaths were reported among healthcare workers — 103 doctors, one medical student, four nurses and 66 were paramedics.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2022