NCOC expresses concern over non-compliance of SOPs
All the federating units have also been directed to check the growing trend
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The National Command and Operation Centre has decided to take all possible steps to ensure implementation of COVID SOPs along with pursuing the mass vaccination campaign.
The decision was taken at NCOC meeting held in Islamabad today (Thursday) with Planning Minister Asad Umar in the chair.
All the federating units have also been directed to check the growing trend of non-implementation of SOPs to contain spread of disease in the country.
The forum expressed concern over non-compliance of SOPs.
Vaccination of citizens above 18
On the other, Governemnt opened up coronavirus vaccination for all adults to avoid another wave of infections and to reach the target of vaccinating 70 million people by the end of this year.
The government aims to vaccinate 70 million by the end of 2021, says Dr Faisal Sultan, the adviser to the prime minister on health affairs. Experts say that roughly 100 million adults are eligible to receive the vaccine in the country where an estimated 42 percent of the people are under the age of 14.
Health official said that the hesitancy not the availability of the vaccine was the issue. “Our problem is hesitancy and we are not alone in this,” Dr Sultan said.
Governemnt would have at least 20 million doses by the end of June but the bigger challenge was to address hesitancy and get millions vaccinated. Only 11 million people have so far registered at the government vaccination portal. The government is yet to begin a targeted awareness campaign to deal with vaccine hesitancy.
In a message on his official Twitter account today, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said, “The acceleration of vaccination drive in the country being made possible by huge investment by the federal govt.”
“So far the procurement of vaccine has reached nearly quarter of a billion dollars. Much more to be spent next year for the vaccines procurement,” he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistan had reported 92 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 926,695. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 21,022.
According to the latest figures issued by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 2,028 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
Province-wise Details
Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths and cases followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Till now 10,132 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 5,073 in Sindh, 4,113 in KP, 763 in Islamabad, 548 in Azad Kashmir, 258 in Balochistan, and 107 in GB.
Furthermore, 340,989 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab, 320,488 in Sindh, 133,450 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 81,446 in Islamabad, 25,370 in Balochistan, 19,344 in Azad Kashmir and 5,608 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Tests and Recoveries
Pakistan has so far conducted 13,367,920 coronavirus tests and 51,523 in the last 24 hours. 852,574 patients have recovered in the country whereas 3,889 patients are in critical condition.
