Pak administers over 1.5 mn Covid vaccine doses, highest ever in single-day

Pakistan has administered a record 15.90 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines in a single day as the government ramped up efforts to combat the fourth wave of the pandemic, the country's coronavirus response chief said on Wednesday.

National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar in a series of tweets said 35 per cent eligible people in Pakistan has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine as the country recorded the highest number of single day jabs on Tuesday.

As many as 15,90,309 vaccines were administered across Pakistan on August 31 -- "the highest single day vaccine administration carried out, he said.

While more than 10 lakh people got their first dose on Tuesday, over five lakh got their second dose, taking the total number of vaccines administered till now to 5,67,68,446, Umar said.

Giving a province-wise breakdown of the percentage of individuals vaccinated, he said 69% of the adult population in Islamabad has been administered the first dose, 51% in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 39% in Gilgit-Baltistan, 37% in Punjab, 35% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 32% in Sindh and 12% in Balochistan.

Umar said the government had set a target of administering the first dose to 40 per cent of the population aged 18 and above in 24 large cities by the end of August, and it had been achieved in 20 main cities.

"Only cities to miss the target were Hyderabad, Mardan, Nowshera and Quetta," he said.

The surge in vaccinations comes against the backdrop of the government placing multiple restrictions on unvaccinated people and opening vaccination for individuals over 17 years of age, starting from Wednesday.

As per the restrictions, vaccination has been made mandatory for those employed in various sectors. Only fully vaccinated people would be allowed to travel domestically and internationally from September 30 and the same condition would apply to incoming passengers.

Full vaccination by October 15 would be compulsory to use public transport facilities. Visitors at shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and weddings would have to get the first dose by August 31 and second jab by September 30 to enter premises and students aged 17 and above should get their first dose by September 15 and second dose by October 15 and in case of non-compliance, they would not be allowed to enter educational institutions.

People travelling on motorways would have to be vaccinated with first dose by September 15, travellers at highways must get their first Covid-19 dose by September 30 and second dose by October 30 to prevent travel bar and school van drivers should get their first dose by August 31.

Vaccination for those aged between 17 and 18 would begin from September 1 and immunocompromised people aged above 12 would get a "specific vaccine" at certain centres from September 1.

Meanwhile, 101 Covid-19 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 25,889, while 3,559 new cases pushed the infection tally to 1,163,688, the health ministry said, adding that the positivity rate was 6.64 per cent.