Pakistan hits 1M daily COVID-19 vaccine shot target

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Tuesday said it has administered over 1 million doses of coronavirus vaccines in a day across the country, the highest daily vaccinations, an official said.

“Happy to report that the target we had set for 1 million vaccinations in a day was crossed yesterday (Monday) with 1.72 million vaccinations,” Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who heads the country’s anti-coronavirus strategy, said on Twitter.

The development follows a significant decrease in the number of fresh infections as the country logged 3,582 coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours compared to 4,858 cases on Monday, and 5,026 on Sunday, according to the Health Ministry data.

With the new infections, Pakistan’s overall case count reached over 1 million with 944,375 recoveries.

The death toll climbed to 23,529 with another 67 fatalities due to the virus in the past 24 hours.

Over 31 million vaccine doses have been administered in Pakistan to date, and those aged 18 and above are eligible for vaccination.

However, only around 7 million people have been fully vaccinated in the South Asian country of over 200 million so far.

Meanwhile, the government has relaxed the requirement of holding a national identity card for vaccination, allowing people to get their jabs by showing any valid ID.