Pakistan to launch vaccination drive covering all citizens after Eid Al-Fitr

A woman receives a dose of the Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 5, 2021. (AFP)

• Planning minister says country has vaccinated 1.3 million people so far
• Health chief says Pakistan’s COVID-19 situation worse than it was in June last year 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Planning Minister Asad Umar said on Tuesday the country had vaccinated about 1.3 million people since it began a coronavirus immunization drive in February, adding that the government intended to launch a general vaccination program for all citizens after Eid Al-Fitr in mid-May.
According to official statistics, the country recorded 4,318 new cases of COVID-19 and 118 related deaths in the last 24 hours.
Umar urged people to follow officially prescribed health safety protocols to curb the spread of the disease, adding that standard operating procedures (SOPs) were not being followed. If people remained cautious for another two weeks, it would bring down the number of coronavirus infections in Pakistan, the minister added. 
He said the last days of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — which begins on April 14 — usually witnessed intense religious worship in mosques along with significant crowds in shopping malls ahead of Eid, warning that “we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we have to impose restrictions at that point.”
Pakistan has mainly relied on the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine to inoculate its frontline health workers and elderly citizens so far. 
Umar told the media on Tuesday that the country was immunizing between 60,000 and 70,000 people on a daily basis and planned to increase the number after Eid Al-Fitr.
An American publication, Bloomberg, recently reported that Pakistan would take a decade to vaccinate 75 percent of its population at its current immunization pace.
The country’s planning minister also admitted during the news conference that there was a disparity between the supply and demand of the coronavirus vaccine, adding that every country was striving to get hold of the required jabs from only a limited number of global manufacturers.
Pakistan’s top health official Dr. Faisal Sultan also told a news conference on Monday that the COVID-19 situation in the country was worse than it had been in June last year.
“Only five percent of the people wear masks and violation of standard operating procedures has become a norm across the country,” he was quoted by the local media as saying.