ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has announced that the walk-in vaccination facility for people above 40-years-old will be opened from May 12 (today) onwards.
“Starting tomorrow, the 12th of May, all 40 plus who have registered will be able to walk into any vaccination centre of their choice and get vaccinated,” the minister wrote on Twitter.
He also informed that vaccination centres are opened for this week and will only be closed for two days on account of Eid-ul-Fitr.
The minister, in a series of tweets, said that the government is making concerted efforts to increase the supply of vaccines as well as expand the country’s vaccination capacity. He added that the government was opening vaccinations based on age in descending order “due to finite availability of vaccines globally, as well as vaccination capacity in the country”.
Furthermore, the minister explained the government’s rationale behind carrying out vaccinations in phases. Umar stated that only 7% of Pakistan’s population was above the age of 60 whereas 53% of all Covid-19 deaths had been in this age bracket.
“Conversely 77% of Pakistan population is below the age of 40 and only 9% of total Covid deaths in Pakistan have been in this age bracket,” he added.
The NCOC chief said that the, “Mortality percentage which has been less than 1% for people under 40, rises to 1.8% for 41-50, 3.8% for 51-60, 7.2% for 61-70, 11.1% for 71-80 and over 15% for those above 80.” Therefore, the federal minister maintained that it was important to inoculate the vulnerable segment of the population first.
“The risk of mortality due to Covid rises sharply with age. In Pakistan the case fatality rate based on cumulative data this strong linkage in our country also.”
On May 5, Umar had informed that the total number of single-day Covid-19 vaccinations had exceeded 200,000. In a tweet, the federal minister further stated that the total number of people to have registered for the vaccine had also crossed five million. – TLTP