ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday announced that over 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in less than nine months.

Besides, 68m people have got at least one dose of vaccine out of whom 38m have been fully vaccinated.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said in a video statement that with the passage of time the pace of vaccination had increased and in the current month up to 1m doses were being administered daily.

“We have passed a major milestone of administering 100m doses of vaccine. This success could not be achieved without support of a number of departments and stakeholders. Firstly, I would thank the people of Pakistan as they participated in the vaccination campaign. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) did a marvelous job. Moreover, federal and provincial ministries and departments cooperated for the campaign,” he said.

NCOC reports 552 Covid infections, 15 deaths in a day

Dr Sultan said that the procurement of vaccine was also a huge task which was also done in the most professional way.

“Another important thing was the documentation of vaccinated people for which National Immunisation Mana­gement System was developed with the support of National Database and Registration Authority and information tech­nology related departments. Till date we have arranged over 130m doses out of which 100m have been procured, 5m were donated by China and over 25m doses were provided by Covax. We are thankful to all international organisations but we are also thankful to the government of Pakistan which arranged funds for the procurement of jabs,” he said.

Covax is an international alliance which has pledged to provide free vaccine for 20 per cent population of Pakistan.

The NCOC data showed that as many as 100,016,587 doses of vaccine have been administered.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has congratulated all stakeholders. He urged 30m people, who have got single shots, to become fully vaccinated at the earliest.

Nearly a year after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease that claimed 11,746 lives and infected more than 500,000 people in the country, the government began vaccinating the frontline warriors on February 2 this year with a 50-year-old doctor Prof Dr Rana Imran Sikander being the first health care worker in the country to get the jab.

Later, it was decided that over 80 years old people will get the jabs first and till date the age limit has been reduced to just 12 years.

Prime Minister Imran Khan got his first dose in March this year.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of National Health Services Sajid Shah told Dawn that it was a collective effort to administer over 100m doses in less than nine months.

“We appeal to the masses to go to the nearest vaccination center and get them inoculated at the earliest,” he said.

The NCOC data showed that as many as 6,815,200 people have got at least one dose of vaccine. It further claimed that 552 infections and 15 deaths were reported on Saturday. The national positivity rate was 1.4 per cent and 1,648 patients were admitted in critical care departments of hospitals.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2021