The Ministry of National Health Services has expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of vaccination of frontline health workers against the coronavirus in Islamabad. In a letter to the capital’s public and private hospitals as well as labs, the ministry pointed out that the vaccination pace is slow as less than half of the total registered health workers have been inoculated against the virus as yet. It lamented that the vaccination pace didn’t pick up despite its directives in this regard. A total of 8,000 health workers got themselves registered for Covid-19 vaccination in the first phase but a mere 3,200 have been administered jabs, even though vaccination counters remain operational throughout the week in Islamabad. The ministry stressed that the vaccination of health workers is the need of the hour, advising medics and paramedical staff working at health facilities of the capital to get jabs on a priority basis. It said the second phase that will see citizens aged 65 and above getting the vaccine will start next month. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 41 more lives in the last 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 12,658, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday. According to the NCOC, 1,050 fresh infections were reported during the aforementioned period, jacking up the national tally of cases to 573,384. The total count of active cases in the country is 24,483 and 1,616 of them were stated to be in critical condition. In the past 24 hours, as many as 752 patients recovered from the virus while so far 536,243 people have recovered. A total of 33,978 tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, while 8,752,533 samples have been tested so far. At least 296 new coronavirus cases were reported from Sindh during the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 256,740. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said in a statement that the Covid-19 death toll in the province reached 4,301 after nine more patients succumbed to the virus overnight. As many as 240,057 patients have recovered so far, he added. At least 529 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Punjab during the past 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 168,348. According to the Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Care Department, at least 29 more patients succumbed to the pandemic as the total reached 5,237. The department added that at least 155,948 patients had recovered from the deadly virus as of yet.