Major cities across Pakistan face COVID vaccine shortage

The in-charge of several vaccination centres of the capital are apologising to citizens for the unavailability of the anti-COVID shots.

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Talking to a local news outlet, DHO Islamabad confirmed that the stock of vaccines in some centres had run out which is now being sent from the central office.

He said that initially, the average number of people coming to Islamabad for vaccination was around 10,000 but in the last few days it has increased to 20,000 in the districts around Islamabad.

"On average, 100,000 doses of the vaccine have been used in the last five days alone."

However, he said that it is not a matter of concern as ample stock of the vaccine is available that is to be administered tomorrow while the day after tomorrow is a holiday.

He told that another consignment of vaccines would reach Pakistan on March 20.

To a question, he said, that at present AstraZeneca is available in Islamabad vaccination centres while citizens have to fill out a consent form to get the UK made vaccine administered.

He supposed that at present the priority of the administration is to offer Sinopharm and a second dose of SinoVac to the people.

According to local media, besides Punjab and Sindh, there have been complaints of a shortage of vaccines in other parts of the country.

In Punjab, there is a fear that the vaccination process will be stopped for a day or two.

However, NCOC officials told the news outlet that the shortage of vaccines in the country is not a major problem but there are some supply line issues that are being overcome.

As of June 18, a total number of 12 million people in the country have been vaccinated, according to the NCOC's Twitter account.

On June 17, 267,000 people were vaccinated while on June 18, a total of 1,043 cases of the corona were reported across the country while 39 deaths were reported.

The corona positive rate in the country stands at 1.9%.

On the other hand, according to local media, Pakistan has signed an agreement with China to purchase large quantities of COVID vaccine, under which more than 27.5 million doses will be procured, including Sinopharm, SinoVac and CanSino.