The second phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive for people aged 60 and above was started at many government hospitals on Wednesday.
Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Service Dr Nausheen Hamid said the senior citizens who have registered themselves for vaccination will receive an SMS with instructions on their mobile phones and the oldest persons will be vaccinated first. She said the vaccination shots would be distributed fairly, in three stages and citizens should not have any doubt about the vaccination as the vaccine has proven safe.
“Beginning with the senior most citizens, who will receive SMS with instructions on their cell phones,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan tweeted on Tuesday.
Earlier, the NCOC head Asad Umar had announced that the vaccination of people aged 60 years and above will start from Wednesday. “Vaccinations will be done in reverse order by age. Which means the oldest person who has registered will be vaccinated first. Full details will be issued tomorrow,” Umar tweeted.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic claimed 43 more lives across the country in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 13,324, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday.
According to the country’s nerve centre for Covid-19 response, 1,786 fresh infections were reported during the aforesaid period, raising the national tally of cases to 595,239. The total count of active cases is 16,699 and 1,664 of them were stated to be in critical condition. A total of 39,425 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours, while 9,318,038 samples have been tested so far.
In the past 24 hours, as many as 1,393 patients recovered from the virus while the number of recoveries so far has been 565,216.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s son and PTI lawmaker, Zain Qureshi, has tested Covid-19 positive for the second time.
In a tweet, Zain Qureshi shared the news and said he is isolating himself after developing mild fever. “I have tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time, isolating at home,” Zain wrote on his twitter account.
