COVID-19 has taken over the entire world by storm. The cases around the globe have been rising. Recently, COVID vaccines have been introduced and they are being distributed in all countries. Pakistan is all set to receive about 5.6 million COVID vaccines by the end of March.
According to the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 2.8 million COVID vaccines that are from World Health Organization’s Covax initiative will reach Pakistan in the first week of March. The remaining 2.8 million COVID vaccines will reach Pakistan by March’s second week.
By the end of June 2021, Pakistan will receive a total of 17.1 million COVID vaccines. Additional to the 500,000 doses of Sinopharm from China, Pakistan has also gotten its hands on the 17 million indicative doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines. According to Faisal Sultan, special assistant to Prime Minister on health:
“Happy to share that in addition to the 500,000 doses of Sinopharm, almost 7 million does [doses] of AstraZeneca to be made available in Q1 and given to the public free of cost,”
Out of the 17 million doses of AstraZeneca, approximately 6 to 6.8 million will be available in the first quarter of 2021.
The government has started registering national citizens of age above 60 and has also mentioned that the senior members of the country can SMS their CNIC on 1166 for registration purposes. General healthcare workers can register themselves for the vaccine on //rms.nitb.gov.pk/portal2/hcw/register
As of now, at least 72,882 frontline health workers have been vaccinated according to National Command and Operation Center (NCOC). The vaccination drive in the country have begun from the first week of February and will continue in order to help people become safe from the virus.