Pakistan opens vaccine to all adults to boost drive

Vaccination drive for citizens aged 19 above to commence from today, tweets Minister Asad Umar; NIH to produce 3m doses per month to ‘significantly reduce Pakistan’s dependence on importing vaccines’

- Tariq Butt

Pakistan is offering jabs to its entire adult population in hopes of boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates, with only 5% of the population inoculated so far.

Pakistan’s Federal Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Minister Asad Umar announced on Wednesday that the registration of persons aged 19 and above for vaccination against the coronavirus will start from Thursday (today).

The decision was taken by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). “So now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for COVID-19 vaccination,” Umar tweeted.

Pakistan has reported a steady decline in infections and fatalities from COVID-19 in recent days, but the vaccination response has been sluggish. The only shots given are three Chinese-made vaccines.

Pakistan has registered 908,576 confirmed cases and 20,465 deaths since last year.

According to the latest update issued by the NCOC, 65 coronavirus patients have died during the past 24 hours, 58 of whom were under treatment in hospital and seven out of the hospital in their respective quarantines or homes,