(Karachi) In a bid to immunize the people against COVID-19 infection, the federal government has provided additional doses of coronavirus to the provinces, local media reported on Thursday.

As per details, at least 452000 shots of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccine have been provided to Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The vaccine jabs were transported in the cold-chain containers via road and by air.

Sindh has been provided 1,12,000 vaccine jabs, while Punjab has been given 100,000 vaccine shots. Moreover, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been supplied 59,000 doses, Balochistan 23,000, Islamabad 23,000, Azad Kashmir 23,000 and Gilgit-Baltistan region have been provided with 12,000 doses of Sinopham and CanSino COVID vaccines.

Earlier today, the country's coronavirus positivity ratio jumped to 9.93 percent after 5,000 new infections were reported.

During the last 24 hours, 50,055 people were tested for the virus, taking the total number of people tested to 10,247,374. Out of these new tests conducted, 4,974 came out positive, taking the national tally to 672,931.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the third peak of coronavirus is far more intense and deadlier than the previous two peaks, urging the nation to exercise utmost precaution against the pandemic while ruling out the possibility of “complete shutdown of the country” due to its adverse economic fallout.

“We cannot afford to completely shut down the entire country —we cannot close businesses and factories— but what we can do is to exercise utmost caution to defeat this third peak,” he said in a brief televised address to the nation.

The PM urged the nation to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the prevention of the pandemic and wear masks in public places.