People over 40 years will be able to walk in to any vaccination centre to get the COVID-19 shot starting tomorrow (May 12), said Asad Umar, head of the National Command and Operation Centre, on Tuesday.
They will first have to register for the vaccine by sending their CNIC number to 1166.
Vaccination centres across the country are open but will be closed during the first two days of Eid, Umar said on Twitter.
The government is administering the Sinopharm, Cansino, Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines free of cost.
On May 4, the NCOC chief had said that the vaccination drive for Pakistanis above 18 years will start after Eid if there are no problems with vaccine availability.
In separate tweets he explained that the government was giving COVID-19 vaccines based on age because of limited supply and vaccination capacity in the country.
Umar added that it was important to inoculate the most vulnerable people first as the COVID-19 mortality risk increases with age.
“In Pakistan the case fatality rate based on cumulative data [shows] this strong linkage in our country also,” he said.
According to statistics he shared, COVID-19 mortality in Pakistan was:
- less than 1% for people under 40
- 1.8% for age group 41-50
- 3.8% for age group 51-60
- 7.2% for age group 61-70
- 11.1% for age group 71-80
- over 15% for those above 80 years
Pakistan has administered 3,629,065 COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Wednesday. A total of 101,538 doses were given over the last 24 hours.
- Partially vaccinated: 1,751,707
- Last 24 hours: 92,142
- Fully vaccinated: 938,948
- Last 24 hours: 9,396
