Will have jabbed 2 million teachers against Covid till early June, Umar says

ISLAMABAD: Following the National Command Operation Center (NCOC) meeting on Monday federal minister for planning Asad Umar said by June 10 about two million teachers will have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, ARY News reported.

In his news briefing on the session today, Umar said the timely decision-making has saved Pakistan from viral Covid spread, however, adding that the pandemic has yet not ended and precautionary measures are still to be taken seriously.

In today’s NCOC meeting it was decided to start scheduling vaccination of registered 18 plus from thursday the 3rd of june. With this step the vaccination of all eligible age groups would be carried out. Please register as soon as possible

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 31, 2021

While Sindh has the highest Covid positivity still, the federal minister said, the collective rate of the country has gone down.

The only way to get out of the virus for good is to get vaccinated against it and that’s where our focus should be, he said.

He said for now we have vaccinated 7 million people but by the end of the running year, it is our desire to jab 70 million. He added that before Eid we need a vaccination status that no more restrictions are required to be imposed.

READ MORE: ECC approves Rs20bn grant for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines

It is pertinent to note that earlier today, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved a technical supplementary grant of Rs20 billion for the procurement of 10 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine next month.

The ECC meeting chaired by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin was specially called to provide a technical supplementary grant of USD 130 million to the National Disaster Management Fund to ensure timely procurement of Corona Vaccine for the effective national response to COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds will be utilized for the procurement of 10 million doses of the COVID vaccine during the month of June 2021.