Islamabad Capital Territory: 85pc of ‘eligible’ population fully vaccinated against Covid-19

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration has crossed set target for the Covid-19 vaccination as over 85 percent of the eligible population in the federal capital has been fully vaccinated, District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia said.

Islamabad’s eligible population for the Covid-19 vaccination is about 1.46 million and “we have crossed the set target” Zia said, and added those who are still not vaccinated in Islamabad should walk to the nearest vaccination centre and get vaccinated or in case, if need assistance, inform DHO Islamabad. “Our teams are ready to help you get vaccinated anywhere in the federal capital,” he said.

He said that in the past 24 hours, a total 44 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in Islamabad after 3,419 tests were conducted with a positivity ratio of 1.29.

The government launched a national vaccination drive in February this year, prioritising health care workers and elderly citizens before broadening the campaign.

According to health officials, a ramped-up vaccination campaign has helped to push down daily infection rates from a peak of more than nine percent in August to less than two percent currently.

About 125 million of Pakistan’s 220 million total population is eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine. Among the eligible population, about 9.93 million have received at least one dose since February, Health Ministry data shows.

According to the latest official data, a total 37,855,681 people have been fully vaccinated in the country, while 67,956,040 people have received first vaccine jab.

Of a total 99,335,067 vaccine jabs administered since the drive started in February,727,359 doses were administered in the past 24 hours across the country.

As of Friday, fully vaccinated Pakistanis constituted 31.5 percent of the targeted population, with all the provincial health authorities claiming that they were ramping up efforts to boost daily vaccination rates by launching door-to-door campaigns and forbidding unvaccinated people from using public transportation, air travel, buying fuel at petrol stations and using other essential services.

Pakistan in the past 24 hours has detected a total 567 Covid-19 cases by carrying out 39,200 tests with a positivity ratio of 1.44 percent.

After the detection of new cases the nationwide tally has reached 1,267,393.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), in the past 24 hours, 16 more people died of coronavirus taking the countrywide tally to 28,344 since the pandemic outbreak.

Pakistan’s coronavirus recoveries have reached 95.8 percent as 864 more Covid-19 patients have recovered in the past 24 hours taking the national tally to 1,214,633.

On account of Covid-19 deaths, so far, Punjab remained on top with 12,383Covid-19 deaths, the province is placed second among all the federating units on coronavirus cases with a total 438,636Covid-19 cases of which 417,275 have recovered, while 8,478 are still active.

On account of Covid-19 cases, Sindh with 466,945 cases is on top among all the federating units of which 12,382 are still active. A total 7,539 people have died in Sindh of Covid-19 and 447,024 people have recovered.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021