The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) head Asad Umar on Tuesday said the country, for the first time, administered more than half a million Covid-19 vaccine jabs in a single day on July 12. “For the first time we crossed half a million doses of vaccination yesterday. 5 lakh 25 thousand (525,000) doses were administered yesterday,” Umar said on Twitter. “Highest ever first dose was also achieved yesterday with 3 lakh 90 thousand (390,000) first doses administered”. Umar expressed hope that the pace will increase in the coming days. Last week, the minister said 20.6pc of people above the age of 50 in Pakistan have been administered at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose. He elaborated that there are 20.7 million people in the country who are 50 years of age or older, and out of those, 5.6 million people have received the first anti-covid jab. Umar urged people to encourage those in the age group to vaccinate as soon as possible as this “age group is most vulnerable to serious health effects of Covid”.