Pakistan to start vaccination of all its citizens next month: Minister

Pakistan will start vaccination of all its citizens after the festival of Eid to be celebrated next month, a senior minister said on Thursday, as the country recorded 5,329 new coronavirus cases, the highest single day surge during the ongoing third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister for Planning Asad Umar told journalists that more than one million people had been vaccinated.

"We will be able to vaccinate more than 125,000 people per day after Eid," Umar said, adding that China was the main provider of vaccines.

He said the next five to six weeks were critical and urged the people to follow SOPs to help mitigate the cases and the impact of the pandemic.

Umar also said that the single-shot Cansino vaccine of China will also be available after Eid and help to speed up vaccination process.

The vaccination in Pakistan is open for people with more than 50 years of age, as well as all health workers. The vaccination has been going on since February 2 when the first phase was launched for only the frontline health workers.

Pakistan recorded 5,329 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single day surge during the ongoing third wave of the pandemic, according to the official data.

The new cases are also the highest since June last year when the country faced the first wave of the coronavirus. Before this, the highest new cases in a day were 5,234 reported on April 1.

With the new cases, the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country reached 705,501, the Ministry of National Health Services reported.

The data showed that 98 more people died in the last one day, pushing the COVID-19 death toll to 15,124. Another 3,942 were reportedly in a critical condition.

The authorities performed 49,816 tests in the last 24 hours, which showed that the positivity rate was 10.7 per cent, it said.