Procurement of COVID vaccine will take some time, says Umar

(Karachi) Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses will take some time as the government initiated talks with China, local media reported on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Umar said that the government is making efforts to procure the coronavirus vaccine and talks in this regard have commenced with China. However, he said that the completion of the procurement process of COVID-19 vaccines will take some time.

"Vaccines for frontline workers will arrive soon in Pakistan," he mentioned.

The minister said that the federal government had been recommended to implement strict curbs amid the recent situation of the pandemic instead of imposing smart lockdown. He maintained that statistics have proven that the policies implemented by the government to curb the coronavirus spread have been successful.

“When the second wave of the virus took over, we immediately identified the sectors that contributed most to the spread: restaurants, wedding halls and schools,” the minister said.

“We took the decision to close these three sectors and the results are in front of you.”

Umar pointed out that since January 7, the number of COVID patients in the hospitals has gone down as compared to the first week of the second wave starting November 30 when the number of cases across Pakistan were rapidly increasing.

He said the reason why the cases declined is due to government's quick response and timely measures to curb the spread of virus.