The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised the COVID vaccination process in Pakistan, terming it fast-paced and effective as the country is inoculating over one million people daily. WHO representative in Pakistan Dr. Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala said in a media briefing today that there are countries where not more than two percent population is vaccinated. Dr Palitha Gunarathna Mahipala was appointed WHO Representative in Pakistan in April 2019.Dr Mahipala is a medical specialist by profession. Before joining WHO, he was working as the Director-General of Health Services, Additional Secretary of Health and Deputy Director of General Public Health Services, Government of Sri Lanka. He is qualified in the fields of public health, health sector management, business administration and economic development.He has work experience with internaional organizations like the Global Fund and Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance. He was a lecturer and examiner at the postgraduate institute of Medicine in Sri Lanka. He has published articles in many national and international journals.
“Pakistan is showing a good performance regarding vaccination as more than one million people are receiving COVID jabs daily,” he said.
He said that the country has so far fully vaccinated its over 20 percent population while more than 40 percent have received their first jab.
He also lauded the NCOC performance and said that owing to its role, Pakistan’s response to the pandemic remained coordinated. “The death ratio owing to COVID has also remained low in Pakistan,” the WHO official said.
The number of total vaccines administered across Pakistan has crossed 70 million doses, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said in a statement on September 15.
In a social media statement, the NCOC announced that in Pakistan total, 70,402,987 vaccine shots have been administered till now.
The health officials administered 890,980 vaccine jabs in the country on September 14, according to the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC).
WHO welcomes the addition of another therapeutic to the world’s arsenal against Covid-19, but it urges the producing company and governments to address the high price and limited production of Regeneron’s anti-body combination and ensure safe and appropriate handling of the medicine.
“Given the high cost and low availability of the combination therapy, WHO calls on Regeneron to lower prices and distribute it equitably across all regions, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and transfer the technology to allow for the manufacturing of biosimilar versions so all patients who may need this treatment could get the drugs,” it said.More over The vaccine developed by the Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products was listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 7. It is now approved for vaccination in 45 countries. After remaining among top 30 countries having the highest number of Covid-19 cases, Pakistan’s rank has dropped to 31st slot, apparently because of better strategy and policies being followed to deal with the pandemic.According to data of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) uploaded on its website, the number of active Covid-19 cases was 61,558 on Thursday. Of these patients, it said, 4,816 were admitted to different hospitals across the country.
Out of total 485 ventilators in use across the country on Thursday, over 70pc were occupied in Multan and Sargodha. Similarly, over 50pc beds with oxygen were in use in Swabi, Multan and Faisalabad.
On the other hand, consignments of three million doses of Sinovac and seven million doses of Sinopharm vaccines arrived in the country and were handed over to the Ministry of National Health Services.
Meanwhile, after remaining among top 30 countries for having the highest number of Covid-19 cases, Pakistan’s rank has dropped to 31st slot, apparently because of better strategy and policies to deal with the pandemic.
Sajid Shah, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Health Services, told media that Pakistan had performed much better in controlling the virus compared to other countries of the world.
“The major initiative was to establish the NCOC which increased coordination among the provinces. Besides, the policy of smart lockdowns was introduced to save the country not only from suffering economically but also bring down the number of mounting Covid-19 cases. Though we are not producer of Covid-19 vaccine, the government ensured availability of the vaccine at the earliest and today we have ample quantity of vaccine doses across the country,” he said.
The NCOC data showed that a total of 1,232,595 Covid-19 cases have been reported since the outbreak of the disease across the country. Out of these, 1,143,605 people have recovered and 27,432 died. The remaining are active cases.
