ISLAMABAD: With the number of active Covid-19 cases falling by over 50pc during the last two months, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has opened walk-in vaccination facility for the entire vaccine-eligible population.

On June 9, the NCOC had announced that around 39 million people in the age group of 18 to 30 years would be able to avail the walk-in vaccination facility from June 11.

Spokesperson for Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) Sajid Shah, while talking to Dawn, said the government wanted to inoculate people at the earliest so that herd immunity could be achieved.

“The walk-in facility of vaccination was provided to the over 70 years age group on March 16, for the over 65 years age group on April 3, for people over 60 years on April 25 and those aged 50 and above were allowed to avail the facility on April 28 whereas those over 40 and over 30 were able to benefit from this facility on May 12 and May 29, respectively,” Mr Shah said.

“From June 11, people over the age of 18 were also allowed to get themselves vaccinated under the walk-in facility. With this decision, 100pc of the vaccine-eligible population can now avail the walk-in facility at any centre after registration,” he added.

It is worth mentioning that in Pakistan people under the age of 18 are not entitled for vaccination.

Mr Shah said all public sector employees will have to be vaccinated by June 30 therefore all vaccination centres will remain open from 8am to 10pm daily, apart from Sundays.

“The NCOC is in the process of developing IT-based solutions for verification of vaccination certificates which shall be completed by the end of the current month,” he added.

Meanwhile, one person died of Covid-19 in Islamabad and 68 new cases emerged on Friday against 3,413 tests. The positivity rate in the capital was 1.9pc. Officials of the capital administration said the deceased was a female resident of Bhara Kahu.

The District Health Office traced 359 contacts of the 62 positive cases, reported on Thursday, officials said.

On Thursday, 23 patients including 14 residents of the capital were hospitalised, they said, adding that there were 2,290 active cases of the virus.

Out of the total 78 are hospitalised, 67 are on oxygen support and 11 are on ventilators, the officials said, adding that the remaining patients were isolated in their homes.

Rawalpindi

A woman lost her battle against coronavirus and another 19 people tested positive in Rawalpindi district as 36 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering.

Khalda Bibi, 84, resident of Dhoke Mustaqeem, was brought to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on June 10 but could not survive. In Rawalpindi district, there are 311 active patients out of which 48 were in hospitals and 263 patients home isolated. As many as 720 patients are waiting for the results of their Covid-19 serology.

As many as 14 patients are from the garrison city out of whom four patients were from cantonment, seven arrived from Potohar Town and three from Rawal Town areas. Three patients arrived from Taxila and two from Islamabad.

As many as 10 patients are admitted to Holy Family Hospital, eight were being treated in Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), 14 in Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) and 16 patients were in Fauji Foundation Hospital (FFH).

There are three patients on ventilators in Rawalpindi, 30 on oxygen support while 15 were stable.

Attock

One Covid-19 patient died in the district whereas two people were found carrying the virus during the last 24 hours. According to health authorities, the deceased was identified as Nasir, a native of Hazro.

District Focal Person for Covid-19 Dr Kashif Hussain said among the new cases, one belonged to Attock city while the other was from Hazro. He said the number of active patients in the district was 112, out of which 110 were home isolated and two hospitalised.

Giving details of active patients in the district, he said there were 68 active patients in Attock city, one in Jand, 17 in Hazro, seven in Pindigheb, five in Hassanabdal and 14 in Fatehjang.

He said the number of suspected patients in the district was 37,127 while screening of 40,379 people was carried out across the district out of whom 33,792 tested negative.

Responding to a question, he said results of 1,111 suspected patients are awaited.— Additional reporting by Munawer Azeem, Aamir Yasin & Amjad Iqbal

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2021