Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar Tuesday announced the launch of a two-week home vaccination campaign to administer over 35 million coronavirus vaccine shots as the fifth wave of the pandemic continues across the country.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, Asad said, “The NCOC has prepared for a massive campaign which is about to start in all areas of the country. Over 55,000 mobile teams will go and carry out vaccinations at homes,” he said, adding that the campaign’s first phase would start from today (Wednesday) and run for two weeks.
A target has been set to administer more than 35m vaccine doses, he said, acknowledging that it was a “huge target” but necessary preparations had been carried out such as training of the mobile teams and ensuring vaccine supplies.
Explaining the reasons behind the campaign, Asad, who also heads the NCOC, said it was found that areas with higher vaccination rates were more protected from the dangerous effects of Covid-19, with vaccinated people showing mild symptoms.
Providing updates on the country’s vaccination progress so far, he said around 80m people were completely vaccinated and over 10m people had received one dose. He added that more and more people were also readily getting booster doses and urged people to either get their second dose or a booster dose if eligible, says a news report.
SAPM Sultan also said that initially the government had said people could get a booster shot but now it was a definite recommendation due to the available scientific evidence. He stressed that vaccination was the only way to escape the restrictions of the last two years and protect one’s health from serious Covid complications.
The SAPM urged people to cooperate with the mobile vaccination teams and welcome them. Earlier, Dr Sultan urged people who haven’t been vaccinated at all, due to any reason, to make sure that they get inoculated.
“Anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated yet due to their inattention or laziness, they still have a chance to get vaccinated now,” he said.
Pakistan reported a positivity ratio below 10% for the first time since January 19, the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) data showed Tuesday morning. However, the country’s active case count remained above 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day.
As per the statistics issued by the NCOC, the country’s daily case count, too, witnessed a dip in the last 24 hours as only 5,327 out of 55,202 diagnostic tests conducted countrywide came back positive. With this decline, Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to 9.65%.
On January 19, the positivity rate stood at 9.48%.
