ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Thursday announced to start vaccinating its citizens under 18 years of age who want to travel abroad for education or other reasons.
Special Assistant to PM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan talking to a private news channel said that people aged 16-18 can receive vaccination dose, if they have to go abroad.
He said that the teenagers will be required to get registered by sending an SMS on the government helpline 1166, and later they will be provided information about a health center.
More than seven million people in Pakistan, to date, are fully vaccinated while the government aims to inoculate 70 percent of its population by the end of this year.
Pakistan launched the vaccination drive in February and it was open for all people aged above 18.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Pakistan increased to 79,992, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 79,992 on Friday.
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that 4,745 individuals tested positive for the illness in the last 24 hours, out of a total of 57,981 who were tested.
The COVID-19 positivity rate in Pakistan now stands at 8.18 percent.
On Thursday, 67 individuals died of the illness, bringing the overall number of fatalities to 23,702.
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity rate rose to 9.06 percent, the first time the country has had a positivity rate over 9% in almost three months.
On May 10, the nation had a coronavirus positive rate of 9.12 percent.
The newest statistics from Pakistan’s National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) revealed a significant rise in the number of daily cases, fatalities, and active cases as the country fight a devastating fourth wave of the virus.
After 62,462 testings, the NCOC detected 5,661 new coronavirus infections in the previous 24 hours.
The COVID-19 claimed the lives of another 60 individuals, bringing the total number of people killed in the country to 23,635. There are currently 77,409 active cases.
According to NCOC statistics, the number of recovered patients is 952,616 and the overall number of cases in the country is 1,053,660.
Sindh has 392,433 cases, 146,485 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 360,494 in Punjab, 89,117 in Islamabad, 30,880 in Balochistan, 25,778 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 8,473 in Gilgit-Baltistan, according to a province-by-province breakdown.
