Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has apprised that people above the age of 40 will be able to receive COVID-19 vaccine from May 12.
Asad Umar took to social media to announce that walk-in vaccination facilities for people above the age of 40 will become operational from May 12th.
The federal minister underscored that only 7% of Pakistan population is above the age of 60 and 53% of all COVID-19 deaths have been in this age bracket. Conversely 77% of Pakistan population is below the age of 40 and only 9% of total covid deaths in Pakistan have been in this age bracket.
Starting tomorrow the 12th of May all 40 plus who have registered will be able to walk into any vaccination center of their choice and get vaccinated. Please note that vaccination centres are open and will only be closing for two days on eid.
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 11, 2021
Defending government’s decision to carry out COVID-19 inoculations on the basis of age in descending order, Asad Umar contended that COVID-19 vaccine’s availability is limited on a global scale, a situation which is further exacerbated due to Pakistan’s limited capacity and resources as well.
He also accentuated that Mortality percentage which has been less than 1% for people under 40, rises to 1.8% for 41-50, 3.8% for 51-60, 7.2% for 61-70, 11.1% for 71-80 and over 15% for those above 80.
Therefore, it is vital that vaccination is concentrated on the most vulnerable segments of population. The risk of mortality due to COVID-19 rises sharply with age. In Pakistan the case fatality rate based on cumulative data this strong linkage in our country also, he added.
Pakistan reported 3,084 new COVID-19 cases along with 113 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, country’s total COVID-19 tally stands at 864,557 cases with 19,106 casualties. A total of 766,492 people have recovered from the novel virus whereas 4,859 are still in critical condition.
