Talks underway with Chinese company for vaccine: Asad

ISLAMABAD – Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said the government was promptly taking decisions to procure the anti-Covid vaccine.

Briefing the media persons here on Tuesday, he said talks were being held with a Chinese company for procurement of the vaccine. The Minister said initially the vaccine will be administered to the healthcare staff which will be followed by other people. 

Umar said that health workers will be the first ones to be injected as soon as the vaccine comes in. “But until that time, you have to keep following SOPs and the precautionary measures given by the government,” he appealed to the public. 

He said the government’s timely decisions and the responsibility demonstrated by the masses have greatly contributed to check spread of the contagion in the country. He said that statistics have proven that the policies implemented by the government to curb the Coronavirus spread have been successful.

The Federal Minister, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), appealed the people to continue to follow the precautionary measures so as to avoid the devastation caused by the virus in the US and other western countries.

He said the government opted for a smart lockdown policy in the wake of first wave of Covid-19 to protect the lives and livelihoods. He said complete lockdown policy adopted by some of the regional countries added to their economic woes.

He said the government’s handling of Covid-19 was appreciated by several world institutions including the World Health Organization and World Economic Forum.

Asad Umar pointed out that in the first week of the second wave starting from November 30, the number of cases across Pakistan was rapidly increasing. “From January 7, we saw that the number of patients in the hospitals has gone down,” he added. “In the second week of December, 2,511 people were admitted to hospitals and required oxygen, while over 300 were in critical care. But after that, you see that the cases go down and people going to hospitals decrease. Why? Because the government was quick in taking steps to curb the virus,” the minister pointed out.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Tuesday morning reported 2408 new Covid-19 cases and 41 deaths in the country — a downward trend in number of cases and casualties. Islamabad, GB and AJK collectively reported 112 new cases and 2 deaths, according to the NCOC. Islamabad reported 98 cases and 2 deaths, GB 2 cases while AJK reported 12 cases during the past 24 hours. GB has not reported a Covid-19 fatality for the last 16 days. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan collectively reported 241 new cases and three new deaths. KP reported 224 new Coronavirus cases and three deaths, while Balochistan reported 17 cases. So far, KP has recorded 61,648 cases while Balochistan’s number stands at 18,429. Punjab reported 508 new Covid-19 cases and 7 deaths. The total number of cases in the province has now reached 146,016, while death toll stands at 4,299.