Pakistan administers 40 million Covid vaccine doses

On Aug 12, 2021 Last updated Oct 4, 2021

A senior citizen (C) receives a dose of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus at a vaccination centre settled inside an Expo Centre in Lahore on April 1, 2021. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has administered more than 40 million Coronavirus vaccine doses, officials say.

“4 crore vaccination doses administered. The last crore took only 9 working days to administer. Keep it Pakistan. Let’s vaccinate and make Pakistan safe from this disease,” said NCOC head Asad Uamr on Thursday.

He also lamented the spread of the virus due to the recently-held Azad Kashmir elections.

“Had recommended that AJK elections get postponed for a couple of months and a special vaccination campaign run before the elections. It was not agreed. Since the elections the positivity of AJK is running between 25 and 30%. Elections have acted as a super spreader event, it said.

“Two weeks back bilawal zardari was threatening to hold PM and ministers accountable if covid spreads further in karachi and now PDM announces holding a jalsa this month in karachi!! Sadly the worst violations of covid sop’s in the last one year have come from politicians.”

More than 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Pakistan through COVAX so far, and more are on the way. This includes 2.4 million doses of AstraZeneca, 100,160 doses of Pfizer and 5.5 million doses of Moderna, the latter donated by the United States under COVAX’ dose-sharing mechanism.