Pakistan's vaccine count crosses 60 million: NCOC

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced on Saturday that Pakistan has now administered over 60 million jabs of the Covid-19 vaccine, as the ongoing fourth wave continues to take toll on the country.

In a tweet, the NCOC said that during the last 24 hours, 1,151,390 doses were administered across the country, taking the total number to 60,536,148. The forum urged the citizens to get vaccinated, especially those who have not gotten their second dose of the vaccine.

The country intends to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of this year and has also committed to spending $1.1 billion on procuring the Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate its people. Pakistan has been inoculating the citizens with CanSino, Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

At over 1.5m, Pakistan administers highest number of Covid-19 doses in a day

Meanwhile, during the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 3,980 new cases at a positivity ratio of 6.21%. Seventy-nine people also succumbed to the novel virus across the country.

On Friday, the NCOC decided to impose a new set of restrictions in areas with high coronavirus prevalence in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Islamabad from September 4 till September 12 to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The new restrictions will apply to Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Khanewal, Multan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan, Peshawar, Swabi, Malakand, Swat, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra and Dera Ismail Khan and Islamabad.

NCOC imposes tighter restrictions in Islamabad, several Punjab and KPK districts

Under the new restrictions, all indoor and outdoor events have been banned. Additionally, public transport will be banned and indoor gyms and educational institutions will remain closed.

The restrictions were announced after the NCOC took a detailed stock of the current disease situation in different districts, daily hospital admissions, pressure on critical care and availability of oxygen, it said.

In wake of the increasing number of Covid cases, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar warned on Thursday that patient inflow at hospitals as well as the occupancy of critical care patients is the highest in Pakistan since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

He said that like the rest of the world, the Delta variant has also had an impact on Pakistan, and is rapidly spreading. This is increasing the burden on hospitals, he added.