KARACHI: Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho has said the provincial government decided to buy Cansino’s COVID-19 vaccines directly from China after the approval given by the federal government.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi on Tuesday, Referring to the Cansino vaccine, 60,000 doses of which were received by Pakistan today, Dr Azra said 8,000 to 10,000 of these would be given to Sindh. The provincial health minister shared that Rs500 million had been allocated by the Sindh government for the purchase of the single-dose vaccine.
Pechuho said that presently, there were 175 adult vaccination centers in the province, out of which 29 were in Karachi, eight in Hyderabad, while the rest were in different districts of Sindh.
The health minister said 362,000 doses had been initially sent by the federal government for 181,000 people of Sindh. Of these, 163,808 doses have been administered to people, including senior citizens from the general population.
She said that 59,586 of these were second doses, administered mostly to healthcare workers because it was not yet time for senior citizens to receive the second dose since it was to be given 21 days after the first one.
Pechuho sharing the further details, said 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine had been received by the province a day earlier, while 200,000 more doses from a recent batch would be sent by the federal government later.
She urged people to continue following standard operating procedures (SOPs), cautioning that until 70 percent of the country’s population was vaccinated against the virus, following the SOPs was the “most reliable way to prevent the spread” of Covid-19.
Pechuho also said the PPP was postponing its rally scheduled to be held in Rawalpindi on April 4 as well as the Sehwan Mela in view of the rising coronavirus cases in Punjab.
Meanwhile, Sindh health authorities have reported 275 new COVID-19 cases, and two deaths lifting the death toll to 4,497 during the last 24 hours.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement issued on Tuesday said that two more patients of COVID-19 lost their lives lifting the death toll to 4,497 that constituted a 1.7 percent death rate.
Murad Ali Shah said that 7,853 samples were tested which detected 275 cases that constituted 3.5 percent current detection rate. So far 3,288,631 tests have been conducted against which 265,432 cases were diagnosed, of the 96.5 percent or 256,052 patients have recovered, including 100 overnight, he added.
Currently, 4,883 patients were under treatment, of the 4,594 were in home isolation, 8 at isolation centers and 281 at different hospitals, the CM informed. He added that the condition of 258 patients was stated to be critical, including 36 shifted to ventilators.
According to the CM, out of 275 new cases, 180 have been detected from Karachi, including 99 from East, 28 South, 23 Malir, 18 West, 8 Central and Korangi 4. Hyderabad has 22, Kamber and Matiari 10 each, Mirpurkhas 6, Ghotki and Sanghar 5 each, Badin, Umerkot and Tando Allahyar 4 each, Thatta 3 and Sukkur 2.
