Pakistan will receive the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine doses by the third week of February, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Dr Nausheen Hamid announced today.
She said the AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered to people who are above 60 years of age. The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine was not sufficiently tested on old aged people, therefore that will not be given to them, she added. She also said there is no vaccine for children below 16 years of age worldwide, and Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine which can be given to the children above 16.
The vaccination process for the healthcare workers will be completed in one and half month, Dr Nausheen Hamid said. The CansinoBIO vaccine will also be available this year, and a reasonable amount of people will be vaccinated before the year ends, she added.
Pakistan launched its nationwide innoculation campaign against COVID-19 yesterday, with Chinese Sinopharm vaccines being administered to the healthcare workers.
NCOC data
Meanwhile, a total number of 1508 people tested positive for the coronavirus on February 3, while 31 people lost their lives. In the last 24 hours, Punjab saw the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths, closely followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), revealed official date from the National Control and Operation Centre (NCOC).
Currently, the total active COVID-19 cases in Pakistan are 32,889. A collective number of 44,173 tests were conducted on February 3; Sindh: 12,035, Punjab: 18,235, KP: 6,718, Islamabad: 5,895, Balochistan: 458, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB): 394, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK): 438.
In Pakistan, 505,818 people have recovered so far from the virus, with no patient currently on ventilators in GB, AJK and Balochistan. 277 vents are occupied across the country.
A total of 550,540 cases have been detected so far; AJK: 9100, Balochistan:18840, GB: 4912, Islamabad: 41655, KP: 67803, Punjab: 159311, Sindh: 248919.
Pakistan has seen a total of 11833 COVID-19 related deaths so far; Sindh: 4036, Punjab: 4821, KP: 1931, Islamabad: 478, Balochistan: 196, GB: 102, AJK: 269.
8,085,427 tests for the virus have been conducted across the country so far. There are currently 631 hospitals with COVID-19 facilities while 2,430 patients are admitted to hospitals throughout Pakistan.
