The Covid-19 situation in Pakistan is getting bad again as the positivity rate has hit 6.17%. The last time Pakistan crossed 6% positivity rate mark was almost two months ago in May. On May 22, the country had recorded a positivity rate of 6.43%.
On Friday, Pakistan reported 31 deaths by coronavirus as the number of positive cases surged to 983,719. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 22,720.
According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 2,327 persons tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday. Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths, followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Till now 10,856 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab, 5,672 in Sindh, 4,377 in KP, 787 in Islamabad, 597 in Azad Kashmir, 318 in Balochistan and 113 in Gilgit Baltistan.
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar Friday said the people with both doses of vaccine against Covid-19 have seven times lower risk of getting virus as compared to those who were not vaccinated. Even the people with first dose have four times lower risk of the disease as compared to those without vaccine, Asad Umar said while addressing a media briefing here along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan.
Urging the people to get vaccinated against the pandemic, the minister who is also Chairman of the NCOC said this was the only way to get rid of the disease. Showing results of research work on the vaccination process in Pakistan, the minister pointed out that from February 03, 2021 – when the vaccination started, to July 01, some 17.7 million received the vaccines out of which 6.2 million people had received both jabs. During the period, he said 490,000 cases of Covid-19 were reported which counts for 0.3 percent of the whole adult population (18 years and above) that is around 125 million in the country.
He said 0.08 percent or 9,917 cases were reported among those who received first dose, whereas 0.04 percent or 5500 people with complete vaccination were infected with the virus. This means every one out of 333 Pakistani citizens was infected, but if we see among the people who got first dose, only one out of 1250 people was reported positive and among those who were completely vaccinated, only one out of 2500 people was reported Covid-19 positive, he added.
He said the data showed that health experts, doctors or scientist were not giving their opinions on the basis of their personal opinions, but they had talked on facts and based on the real results of vaccinations in Pakistan. He said even the people who were vaccinated but got infected, the seriousness of the disease was far lower as compared to those who were not vaccinated. The Indian variant, he said had worst impact on the whole region but the good news was that if you got vaccinated, the risk would minimize. The world has praised Pakistan’s strategy to cope with the pandemic, therefore in order to maintain this positive image, all Pakistanis are urged to get vaccinated and follow SOPs against the pandemic especially during Eid holidays.
