The World Bank has approved the provision of $153 million to support the ongoing national vaccine drive in Pakistan to help the country fight the pandemic.
On Thursday, a statement from the global financial institution confirmed that the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors had approved the restructuring of the Pandemic Response Effectiveness in Pakistan (PREP) project, which was originally approved in April 2020.
These funds, redeployed at the federal government’s request, will help finance the purchase and deployment of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that meet the eligibility criteria of the WB.
The project will strengthen the health system’s capacity to implement the vaccination campaign for its prioritised and eligible populations, the statement said.
“The third wave of COVID-19 emerged in Pakistan in March 2021 and is threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people,” World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Najy Benhassine said.
“The World Bank remains a committed partner to support Pakistan in addressing this public health crisis, including through vaccination, and providing support to tackle the social and economic impacts of the pandemic,” he added.
The statement said in addition to this financing for vaccines in Pakistan, the World Bank has provided $768.5 million to support the vaccination purchase and rollout efforts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
“In addition to financing, the Bank is providing technical assistance and knowledge-sharing workshops for countries in South Asia on different aspects of designing and deploying fair and equitable vaccine strategies,” it said.
Third-wave
Dr Faheem Younus, who serves as chief of infectious diseases at the US-based University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, said that coronavirus cases in Pakistan have dropped 61% from their peak.
He said cases falling to 11/100,000 and shared a graph of the fall by Reuters.
Pakistan has reported 83 deaths and 1,531 new infections — 50 per cent lower compared to Pakistan’s infections in April– in the past 24 hours.
The National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) said that out of 83 people, 36 died on ventilators; 10 were not even hospitalised at the time of death. Sind reported 13 deaths, Punjab reported 30 deaths, 20 people died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three died in Islamabad, two died in Azad Kashmir. The total number of deaths due to the virus has touched 19,467 in Pakistan.
In Multan, 53 per cent of the total number of ventilators is occupied. In Lahore, the figure is 58 percent, in Peshawar, 43 percent of ventilators are in use, while in Bahawalpur, the number is 40percent.
The influx of cases has dropped down by 50 percent in the last 25 days.
On April 19, Pakistan conducted over 68,000 tests, while on May 14, Pakistan did an estimated 30,000 tests. On April 19, as per official data, Pakistan had 5,455 cases, 137 deaths, an 8 per cent positivity ratio, and 68,002 tests.
On May 14, as per NCOC data, Pakistan had 1,531 cases, 83 deaths, a positivity ratio of 5.06pc, and tests at 30,248.
