Over 100 million Pakistanis partially vaccinated, says NCOC chief
A man receives a coronavirus vaccine during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Karachi on Tuesday. Reuters
There is a considerable spike in the COVID-19 cases for the past one week. Pakistan registered more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases for the fifth straight day, as the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 continues to push infection rates across the country.
The National Command and Operations Centre’s (NCOC) COVID-19 statistics showed that Pakistan registered 1,649 cases in the last 24 hours, a day after the daily caseload was reported at 1,572 — the first time since Oct.3 that daily cases were above 1,500. The positivity rate stands at 3.66 per cent.
The patients on critical care have moved up from 604 on Sunday to 617 in the last 24 hours, as the deaths came down from seven to three, according to NCOC’s data.
“Achieved another major milestone in the vaccination campaign, crossing 100 million people who have received at least one dose. Of these nearly 75 million are fully vaccinated. Work not complete yet. Need to keep the momentum going,” NCOC head Asad Umar tweeted.
After Omicron was detected in Pakistan, it also lowered the age limit for the administration of COVID-19 booster jabs from Jan.1 — individuals aged 30 years and above are eligible for it.
As many as 759 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Karachi. A total of 799 people were tested positive for COVID-19, officials said, adding that positivity of the cases was 15.52 per cent in Karachi due to spread of Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said 39 more cases of Omicron variant emerged when 53 samples were tested through the Next Generation Genome Sequencing (NGS) and now 367 cases of Omicron variant had been found in the province.
He said that 940 new cases of COVID-19 emerged when 13,757 tests were conducted on Monday while one more patient died due to infectious disease, raising the death toll to 7,682.
The chief minister said that during the last two days, 53 samples were tested through the Whole Genome Sequencing, which detected 39 new cases, lifting the number of Omicron variant cases detected in the province so far to 367. Shah said one more patient of coronavirus had died overnight, lifting the death toll to 7,682 that constituted 1.6 per cent death rate.
Some 940 new cases emerged when 13,757 tests were conducted that came to 6.8 per cent current detection rate. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Tuesday confirmed 22 cases of the Omicron variant, most of which are from Peshawar.
According to the health department, the KP government had made all arrangements to curb the spread of coronavirus and social distance was effectively maintained. People have also been advised to strictly follow the SOPs issued by the provincial government to curb the spread of the pandemic.
