ISLAMABAD: The National Com­mand and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Monday announced that Pakistan has achieved another milestone by administering 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

Also on Monday, the country reported the lowest number of Covid-19 cases since Jan 11 and the national positivity rate remained at 5.62 per cent.

The NCOC data showed that 200,825,508 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered. As many as 119,150,808 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 92,565,125 have been fully vaccinated. Moreover, 3,610,979 people have been inoculated with the booster dose.

It is worth mentioning that seven vaccines — Sinopharm, Sinovac, CanSino or Pakvac, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik — are being administered in Pakistan.

NCOC says 200m of vaccine jabs administered

The data showed that 2,662 people were infected with the virus and 29 Covid-19 patients died on Monday. It was the lowest number of infections in a single day for over one month. Earlier, 2,074 cases were reported on Jan 11.

While the national positivity rate was 5.62pc, only five cities reported over 10pc positivity rate. These cities are Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Skardu, Nowshera and Karachi. The highest positivity rate was reported by Muzaffarabad where 17.65pc samples were found positive.

The data further showed that as many as 1,566 patients were on critical care on Monday.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, after a meeting with the health minister of Afghanistan, said that issues related to health services and education were discussed.

“We also discussed the situation of polio as there are only two countries in the world in which polio cases are still being reported,” he said.

“It is a matter of embarrassment for us that poliovirus still exists in these two countries,” he said, adding that both Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to enhance cooperation for eradication of poliovirus.

Dr Sultan said hospitals in Afgha­nis­tan, especially those developed with the support of Pakistan, would be upgraded. Pakis­tan will facilitate cancer patients who come from Afghanistan for treatment here.

He said the two countries would also cooperate with each other in the field of education.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022