Daily Times

Islamabad on Friday got its first coronavirus vaccination centre after the government established the facility in Taralai area of the federal capital.

The development comes as the national tally of total active COVID-19 cases in Pakistan on Friday reached 33,124, with 2,435 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 3,313 recovered from the coronavirus during the last 24 hours. Forty eight corona patients, 44 of whom were under treatment in hospitals and four in their homes or quarantines, died on Thursday, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

According to details, citizens can register themselves for the vaccination by signing up on helpline 1166. The government has installed a special chiller at the centre to ensure that the vaccine is secured and lasts long.

The federal health ministry has also set up a training centre for the vaccinators at the venue. The centre was set up a day after Secretary for Ministry of National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid said that Pakistan is expected to get the first COVID-19 vaccine shipment by the end of this month.

According to Radio Pakistan, Dr Hamid said that the government was “urgently” drafting a database of all public and private medical workers to get them inoculated in the first phase. However, the publication did not specify which vaccine and from which country Pakistan would procure it.

A week earlier, science minister Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan would purchase 1.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinopharm.

“The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021,” the science minister said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the NCOC said that out of the total 48 deaths during last 24 hours, 26 patients died on ventilators. No COVID-19 affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), while 300 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan.

The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas: Multan 42 percent, ICT 39 percent, Bahawalpur 41 percent and Lahore 35 percent.

Some 38,369 tests were conducted across the country on Thursday, including 12,461 in Sindh, 14,804 in Punjab, 5,581 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 4,492 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 500 in Balochistan, 312 in GB, and 219 in AJK.

Around 453,828 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 86 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

The national COVID-19 positivity ratio on Friday was recorded at 6.35 percent, where 2,285 coronavirus patients were in critical condition across the country, with the number of critical patients rising at a fast pace. The positivity ratio was determined on the basis of positive cases appearing in 100 samples of COVID-19 patients.

The highest positivity ratio was observed in Karachi, which was 17.06 percent, followed by Peshawar 12.59 percent and Hyderabad 10.95 percent, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).