Pakistan has fully vaccinated 70 million people, roughly 46 percent of the country’s total eligible population, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, adding his government has spent over $1.4 billion in procuring and providing free vaccines to the public. The country has received fundings from various multilateral agencies like the WHO, World Bank, and IMF. 

In a tweet, Khan wrote, “We have completed our target of fully vaccinating 7 crores of our people by end of 2021.” With over 220 million population, Pakistan has mostly used China’s Sinopharm vaccines in its national inoculation program. 

The country has over 153 million eligible people vaccines. Of them, 46 percent have been fully vaccinated; 63 percent received at least one dose of vaccines, said Asad Umar, the county’s planning and development minister. 

Umar, who also heads the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC), the country’s top body managing the Covid-19 crisis, expressed his gratitude for the NCOC team, provincial and district health teams. 

With 77 percent fully vaccinated, Islamabad, the country’s capital, is at the top, and southern Sindh province has the lowest vaccination rate with just 37 percent people fully vaccinated. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a northwestern mountainous province, has fully vaccinated 41 percent, the restive Baluchistan province 42 percent. 

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the country has recorded a total of 1.2 million infections. In comparison to other countries in South Asia, Pakistan has managed the Covid-19 crisis relatively better, with well-coordinated and timely actions. 

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Umar, however, expressed concern over the growing cases of Covid-19 due to the highly infectious Omicron variant. 

First detected in South Africa, Omicron is now wreaking havoc in several European and western countries. Britain and Germany both have been reporting over 100,000 per day. 

(SAM)