COVID-19
Islamabad: Pakistan, which has witnessed several waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, is still slow in vaccinating its population, media reports said.
As per media reports, around five per cent of Pakistan’s total and 10pc of its eligible population has got at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The data of federating units show that 35pc of eligible people have been vaccinated in Islamabad but only 3pc people opted for vaccination in Balochistan. In Sindh and Punjab, around 10pc people have received at least one shot, reports Dawn News.
Experts believe that lack of education, misconceptions, vaccine hesitancy and propaganda were the reasons behind slow pace of vaccination.
According to documents available with Dawn, there are over 125 million people (over 18 years of age) eligible for vaccination in Pakistan. In Punjab, 66 million people are eligible for vaccination, 28m in Sindh, 19m in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 6.4m in Balochistan, 2.7m in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, 1.4m in Islamabad and 1.1m in Gilgit-Baltistan.
So far 12m people have registered themselves for vaccination in Punjab, 4m in Sindh, 3m in KP, 700,000 in Islamabad, 700,000 in the AJK, 320,000 in Balochistan and 270,000 in GB.
The data shows that 48pc people have registered themselves in Islamabad, 24pc each in the AJK and GB, 18pc in Punjab, 15pc in KP, 14pc in Sindh and only 5pc in Balochistan.
Microbiologist Prof Dr Javed Usman, while talking to Dawn, agreed that there was more reluctance in Pakistan against vaccination.
“Majority of people answered that they will get sick, their DNA will be changed, they will contract Covid-19. One of the female post-graduate students, who conducted survey of graduate females, told me that majority of females said that vaccine will become reason of infertility and others said that they can die due to vaccine,” Dr Usman told Dawn News.
Pakistan on Saturday reported 1,400 fresh cases of novel coronavirus during the past 24 hours, pushing the country's caseload to 9,61,085.
In the same period, 34 people also lost their lives, soaring the death toll to 22,379.
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