ISLAMABAD: While announcing the completion of the government’s target of fully vaccinated citizens, Prime Minister Imran Khan reminded the country that the goal was achieved due to the federal government’s procurement of Covid-19 vaccines worth almost Rs 250 billion.
“We have completed our target of fully vaccinating 70 million of our people by end of 2021. To achieve this our federal government alone procured vaccines worth almost Rs 250 billion and provided free vaccines to citizens in all the provinces,” tweeted PM Imran on Friday.
I want to thank the tireless & coordinated work done by the NCOC, federal & provincial administrations & health teams to ensure success of our govt’s vaccination prog.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 31, 2021
The premier thanked the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), federal and provincial administrations and health teams for their “tireless and coordinated work” in ensuring the “success” of the government’s vaccination programme.
Read more: Pakistan achieves target of vaccinating 70million people in 2021, claims Asad Umar
Earlier in the day, Planning Minister Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, a body that oversees the Covid-19 operations in Pakistan, had announced that Pakistan successfully achieved the target of vaccinating 70million people by year’s end that some people thought was impossible.
“…the goal of complete vaccination of 70 million people by the end of 2021 has been achieved,” announced the minister on the last day of 2021.
Lauding his team at the NCOC, he said, “I am grateful for the tireless work of the NCOC team, the federation, especially provincial administrations and the health teams.”
“The hard work of all these people achieved a goal that people thought was impossible.”
According to Umar, amongst the federating units, Islamabad leads with 77 % fully vaccinated. Punjab was at 51 %, Gilgit Baltistan at 46 %, Azad Jammu and Kashmir at 45 %, Balochistan at 42 %, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 41%, and Sindh at 37 %.
Read more: More than half of students between 12-18 years vaccinated with one dose, says Asad Umar
“Of the total eligible population, 46% is fully vaccinated, and 63% has received at least one dose.”
Meanwhile, the NCOC has announced that all vaccination centres across the country will remain closed on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and will resume work on January 3, 2022 (Monday).
The target was achieved as fears across the world of another wave of Covid-19 spread after the Omicron variant was detected in South Africa.
In Pakistan, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has confirmed a total of 79 cases of Omicron across the country, claiming that it has also isolated the patients and initiated contact tracing to control the spread of the variant.
