ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar has said that the government has decided to allow business activities as the positivity rate in the country had come down from 11 percent to 4 percent.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Monday, Asad Umar said the positivity rate, which had reached 10-11%, had come down to 4.5% last week and yesterday it was just over 4%, adding that the positivity rate in Sindh is still a bit high and the situation needed to be handled carefully.
Due to the timely decisions of the government, Pakistan did not witness the situation faced by some other countries in the region however, “nation still need to be cautious because pandemic is not over yet.”
The NCOC chief said, “The only way to get rid of the Covid epidemic is by administrating vaccine to as many people as possible and as quickly as possible.”
Seven million vaccines had been administered in Pakistan so far with 5.2m to 5.3m people vaccinated and the eventual goal by the year’s end was to reach 70m people, Umar added.
Citing the data he said more than seven million vaccine doses have been administered and some 5.2 to 5.3 million people are included in this who have been vaccinated.
He said the target by the year’s end was to inoculate 70m people in the country with a particular emphasis on achieving vaccination rates at an adequately high level in two months June and July so that stern restrictions would not be required before Eidul Azha.
Asad Umar said that the federal government had arranged more than 10 million vaccines for this with much more to follow. “Just in June we will have more than 10 million vaccines and then in July a further 10 million,” he added.
“The federal government has worked in coordination with the provinces and the provinces have significantly increased their capacity at vaccination centres,” said Umar crediting it as the reason behind Pakistan’s inoculation boost from a few hundred at the start to 383,000 administrations the day before yesterday.
He also announced initiating a vast campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated across the country. Asad further said that the government would also approach the religious scholars as they have great influence over the masses.
