ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has stressed the significance of vaccination against COVID-19, saying that people with both doses of vaccine against COVID have seven times lower risk of getting virus.
“Even the people with first dose have four times lower risk of the disease,” the minister said while addressing a press conference along with Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan.
The federal minister urged the people of Pakistan to get vaccinated against the deadly disease, saying that this was the only way to get rid of the disease. He pointed out that from February 03, 2021 to July 01, some 17.7 million received the vaccines out of which 6.2 million people had received both jabs.
“During the period, 490,000 cases of COVID-19 were reported which counts for 0.3 percent of the whole adult population (18 years and above) that is around 125 million in the country,” he added.
The minister further said that 0.08 percent or 9,917 cases were reported among those who received first dose, whereas 0.04 percent or 5500 people with complete vaccination were infected with the virus.
“This means every one out of 333 Pakistani citizens was infected, but if we see among the people who got first dose, only one out of 1250 people was reported positive and among those who were completely vaccinated, only one out of 2500 people was reported COVID positive”, he highlighted.
Referring to the Delta variant, the minister said that the Indian variant had worst impact on the whole region “but the good news was that if you got vaccinated, the risk would minimize”.
“The world has praised Pakistan’s strategy to cope with the pandemic, therefore in order to maintain this positive image, all Pakistanis should get vaccinated and follow SOPs against the pandemic especially during Eid holidays,” he concluded.
