Vaccine drive for people over 60 years begins today

Dunya News

Individuals to be informed about vaccine centre and the date of vaccination through a text message.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Vaccination of people of sixty years and older age against Covid-19 starts from today (Wednesday).

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan said the senior most citizens will be the first ones to receive the doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

He urged the healthcare workers and those eligible to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones against the contagion.

Earlier, Minister for Planning Asad Umar said the vaccinations will be done in reverse order age wise and the oldest persons, who have registered themselves for vaccination, will be vaccinated first.

During the campaign, the registered eligible citizens will be informed about the vaccine centre and the date of vaccination through a text message.

The health department started registration of those 60 years and above for the immunization programme from February 15 asking the citizens to send a text message at 1166 or enter their details at the national immunization management system (NIMS) website.

On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 43 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 595,239. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 13,324.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 1,786 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.

Till now 260,150 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 179,654 in Punjab 74,433 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 46,229 in Islamabad, 19,141 in Balochistan, 10,673 in Azad Kashmir and 4,959 in Gilgit-Baltistan.