Govt wants to inoculate maximum people to avoid restrictions on Eidul Azha: Asad Umar

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, has said that the government wants to vaccinate enough people to avoid difficult restrictions at the time of Eidul Adha.

He made these remarks while addressing a press briefing on Monday following a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Monday.

Umar noted that nearly seven million (single and double dose) vaccines had been administered in Pakistan so far to inoculate about 5.3m people. The eventual goal was to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of this year.

“According to our figures, more than 7m vaccine doses have been administered and some 5.2 to 5.3m people are included in this who have been vaccinated,” he said.

Pakistan vaccinated Pakistan has sped up the vaccination process in the country after successfully producing the single-dose CanSino Bio vaccine at the National Institute of Health (NIH) vaccination plant.

On May 29, the country vaccinated record 0.38 million people, taking the total vaccine administered to just over 7 million. With this pace, the goal to inoculate 70 million people this year seems quite achievable.

Umar said that the government aims to vaccinate 10 million people in June and as many people in July to be able to avoid strict lockdown on Eidul Adha.

“The NCOC (National Command and Operation Centre) has worked in coordination with the provinces and the provinces have considerably increased their capacity at vaccination centres,” Asad added.

The federal minister vowed to more than double the figure in the near future to inoculate a maximum number of people by the end of 2021.