KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry here on Saturday said the pace of vaccination against COVID-19 in Pakistan is much better than a number of countries in the world.

He hoped that they would cover the targeted population in a year.

“This is in a scenario when only three countries are producing these vaccines, including China, Russia and India- the latter being worst hit hence is no more exporting the vaccine”, he said while addressing a press conference at the Sindh Governor’s House.

Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh and other notables were also present on the occasion.

He said despite shortage of the vaccine at the global level, Pakistan has attempted to arrange the same without any compromise in terms of quality. “We have received through GAVI, besides those provided to us by China as a gesture of friendship, and have also purchased from other available sources.

Fawad Chaudhry said the provinces should also purchase corona vaccine for their population as Punjab has made allocation for the purpose, but no such step has yet been taken by Sindh.

The Federal Minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan was reluctant to impose complete lockdown but fully conscious that lives of the people were the most important and valuable.

He said equal responsibility lied upon the citizens themselves as well as influential segments of the society to ensure optimum compliance of the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) so as to avert India like situation.

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has recently reviewed the COVID-19 situation, and it has decided to take further steps after a week, with an advice to impose strict restrictions, if situation would deteriorate, Fawad Chaudhry added.