ISLAMABAD - With the country’s Covid-19 positivity rate has climbed to 8.53 percent, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) yesterday finalized its recommendations for the procurement of the vaccine against the deadly disease.
These recommendations will be presented before the federal cabinet meeting scheduled to be held Monday, and approval will be sought to get the vaccine, said Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar.
“NCOC today finalized its recommendations for procurement of Covid-19 vaccine. These will be presented to the cabinet tomorrow for approval. The taskforce of experts headed by SAPM on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan had developed the recommendations which were discussed and finalized today,” he said in a Tweet.
According to official sources, the government is taking this step to avail the opportunity of getting the vaccine at the earliest.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had allocated $150 million for the procurement of the vaccine at the earliest and allowed its advance payment for procurement.
The meeting at the NCOC was informed that while national positivity ratio has reached 8.53 percent, the highest positivity ratio in the country has been observed in Mirpur city of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) which is 27.75 percent followed by 23.44 percent in Muzaffarabad (AJK) and 18.21 percent in Hyderabad (Sindh).
AJK has highest positivity rate which is 21.3% followed by14.04% in Sindh, 11.95% in Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 6.62%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 5.57%, Punjab 4.84% and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) has 3.43%positivity ratio.
In Punjab, the positivity rate in Lahore is 6.19%, Rawalpindi 4.83% and Faisalabad has 3.14%.
In Sindh, the positivity rate in Karachi is 17.95% and Hyderabad has 18.21%.
In KP, Peshawar has 18.09% positivity rate, followed by 6.22% in Abbottabad and 5.81% in Swat.
In Balochistan, Quetta has 9.09% positivity rate. In AJK, Mirpur has 27.75% positivity rate followed by 23.44% in Muzaffarabad. In GB, Gilgit has 5.68% positivity rate.
Health experts during the meeting at NCOC also briefed the forum on disease pattern, Covid-19 spread in various areas and enforcement measures being taken to contain pandemic. The meeting was informed about the smart lockdowns enforced countrywide.
The meeting was informed that AJK was under lockdown till December 6 while 5,082 smart lockdowns are in place across Pakistan with 20, 58746 people under these lockdowns.
According to the data released by the NCOC, 1459 smart lockdowns are in place in Punjab, followed by 206 in Sindh, 182 in KP, and 30 in GB.
According to the NCOC, 2,046 Covid-19 patients are critical in the country including 467 in Punjab, 675 in Sindh, 356 in KP, 16 in Balochistan, 323 in ICT, 23 in AJK, and five in GB. The number of critical patients is rising fast, the NCOC said.
The latest data released by NCOC on Monday shows that the number of deaths countrywide due to coronavirus has reached 8,025 with 2,924 in Sindh; 2,991 in Punjab; 1368 in KP; 314 in ICT, 166 in Balochistan; 165 in AJK, and 97 in GB.
About 2,839 people tested positive for Covid-19 on 29 November while 40 people lost their lives due to the infection during last 24 hours.
Out of this total, 37 people died in hospitals and three died out of hospitals. In Sindh, 11 died in hospitals and 2 out of hospitals, while 11 died in hospitals and one died out of hospital in Punjab; 9 died in hospitals in KP, 5 died in hospitals in ICT, and one died in hospital in AJK.
As of November 29, total active cases of Covid-19 in the country are 48,576 while 33,302 tests were conducted during the same day.
As many 10,825 tests were conducted in Punjab, 10,081 in Sindh, 5,624 in KP, 5,149 in ICT, 796 in AJK, 477 in Balochistan, and 350 in GB.
As many 341,423 people have recovered so far across Pakistan making it a significant count while there is no patient on ventilator in GB & Balochistan.
About 300 ventilators are occupied across Pakistan out of 1757 ventilators allocated for Covid-19 patients.
A total of 398,024 cases of Covid-19 have detected so far countrywide including 4,649 in GB, 6,855 in AJK, 17,158 in Balohisan, 30,123 in ICT, 47,190 in KP, 1,19035 in Punjab, and 173,014 in Sindh.
About 55, 08,810 tests have been conducted so far while 614 hospitals are available with Covid facilities and 2,543 patients have been admitted in these health facilities across the country, according to NCOC.