Pakistan crosses 11,000 COVID-19 deaths as two vaccines get approved for emergency use
The number of coronavirus deaths in Pakistan surged to 11,055 on Tuesday, according to the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) tally as a new coronavirus variant threatens the country’s prevention measures to curb the pandemic.
During #Covid19 Pakistan’s business industry wasn’t just agile and early adopter of change, we’ve also seen rapid growth in number of businesses registered.
That’s success our government worked hard for.https://t.co/qdV20drhGg— Sayed Z Bukhari (@sayedzbukhari) January 17, 2021
Since the start of January 2021, the country has witnessed 48.8 deaths on average every day with hospital intensive care units nearing capacity across the country as active COVID-19 cases surge to 35,485.
Queued for 90 mins (online obvs), got in, dealt with the awful booking system, took me a further 30 minutes but happily to have tickets to Eng v Pak at @HomeOfCricket in July.
Now just to hope we get rid of Covid in time, crowds are allowed by then, and I can look forward to it.
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) January 18, 2021
Over 2,000 people died of coronavirus in the month of December last year while the death toll for November 2020 was 1,268 and October recorded 339 fatalities.
5,624 at the Gabba today. The socially-distanced, Covid-safe total Gabba crowd of 48,584 is more than the 45,891 who attended v Pakistan last summer #AusvInd
— Daniel Brettig (@danbrettig) January 19, 2021
Most of the deaths were reported in Punjab and Sindh. The national fatality rate is 2.1%.
The NCOC provided a breakdown of ventilators occupied in major areas in different provinces:
- Multan: 49%
- Islamabad 32%
- Peshawar 31%
- Lahore 38%
The breakdown of patients on oxygen is:
- Peshawar: 45%
- Multan: 38%
- Karachi: 40%
- Rawalpindi: 26%
The recovery rate of patients is 91.1% with an additional 1,243 people recovered from the virus. Total recoveries stand at 476,471.
Coronavirus vaccine
Pakistan has yet to finalise an order for the COVID-19 vaccine. The government has been in talks with six leading manufacturers.
On Saturday, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan told Reuters that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had granted emergency use authorisation to the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho has emphasised the need for vaccination and said the vaccines cannot be imported until the federal government approves.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan is the last country that has yet to order vaccines,” she said. “Procuring vaccines is the federal government’s responsibility. If they can’t do it, they should allow the provincial government to procure vaccines and start administering them.”
She added that 70% to 80% of Pakistan’s population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
