Pakistan will begin to vaccinate children aged 12 and above for COVID-19, an official said on Tuesday amid signs of a fourth pandemic wave subsiding.
The country began the vaccination of people 17, and older this month, and the age limit was being further reduced, said Asad Umar, the minister who oversees Pakistan’s response to the coronavirus.
Umar said nearly 80 million people had received at least one dose of the vaccine in Pakistan, according to the statistics released by the Health Ministry.
Pakistan relies on political ally China and the global distribution system COVAX for vaccine doses.
Nonetheless, sometimes slow supply hampers the national inoculation drive in the country with a massive population of 220 million people.
Pakistan reported about 1,400 new coronavirus infections on Monday, the lowest level since early July and an indication that the fourth pandemic wave was subsiding.
Less than four per cent of people who were tested this week turned out to be positive, a huge decline from July and August, when the ratio was about10 per cent.
More than 1.2 million people had been infected since the pandemic hit the country, with deaths reaching 27,000.
